Vast Battle for Caucasus Next

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 265, 7 November 1941, Page 5

Vast Battle for Caucasus Next

GERMAN ATTEMPT TO FORESTALL WAVELL LONDON, Nov. 5. According to German military officials, the German High Command's eagerness to exploit its successes in the Crimea is likely to lead very soon to the development of a vast hatrie in the Caucasus in the direction vf Astrakhan, which lies at the mouth of the Volga. In reporting this, the correspondent

of the Times on the German frontier says the Germans aim to take every possible objective before iemrul Wavell is able to prepare any opevatioii in the Trans-Caucasus area.

The Wilhelmstras.se (German Foreign Office) interprets the United States warning to Finland as an eleventh-hour attempt to save the Murmansk railway for the transport of supplies because Archangel, present supply port in the White Sea, cannot be kept sufficiently ice-free.

German military circles add that, if the High Command envisages any winter “deadline,” it would be from Archangel to Astrakhan. Red Fleet Handicapped.

The development of the German offensive in tho Crimea is felt in authoritative circles to have somewhat changed the position of Sebastopol as a naval base for the Russians (says a British Official Wireless message.) The German air attacks seem to have grown and are now on a fairly heavy scale, and the Russians may find some difficulty in maintaining Sebastopol as a naval base.

It is not clear whether iha German move towards Kerch, on tho easterly arm of the peninsula, is a move to cross the strait to the mainland or to handicap the evacuation oI Russian troops from the Crimea. Thi strait itself is a fairly foruudah’is barrioi, and, unless a bridgehead ia established on the Caucasus mainland and control is obtained over the strait by gunfire and air attack, it is not easy to see how large numbers of troops could be transported across.

General Sir Archibald Wavell, British Commander-in-Chief in India, before leaving Singapore to-day, spoke on the situation in Russia. Ho said it was somewhat obscure, but that, if the Germans pushed on toward India, they would come up against greatlystrengthened defences on the northwest frontier.

General Wavell added that supplies were reaching Russia from India in considerable and increasing quantities, but that no troops were being sent, and that pone had been asked fp>