Master Shakes of Russian Strategy

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 56, 8 March 1943, Page 5

Master Shakes of Russian Strategy

GERMAN PERIL GROWS. LONDON, March 5. The vast Russian offensive on the central front hourly broadens and increases in power (says an earlier message). The Red Army maintains its advance on the 600-mile sweep from Lake Ilmen to Kharkov, menacing five of Hitler’s main “hedgehog" positions. The Germans claim that the Donetz position has been stablised, but Moscow messages suggest that the Russians are at present withholding their hand. Some commentators believe that the Russians’ progress in the centre is so imperilling the entire structure of the German defences that if their vigorous thrusts continue the Germans in the Donetz Basin will be confronted with a wholesale retreat or another Stalingrad disaster. Tho Russians may be so confident of the eventual outcome that they are letting the Germans in the Donetz stew in their own juice. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians are rapidly developing their thrusts and are threatening to shatter another German “hedgehog" system. They are driving south-westward of Rjev towards Smolensk, Germany’s biggest base in Russia. It is believed that it is Hitler’s own headquarters. Simultaneously, north-west of Kursk the Russians are fighting westward from the highway junction of Sevsk. The threat of the encirclement of Orel is thus increasing. The Red Army is smashing southward from Rjev towards Gjatsk and Viazma, the two last German “hedgehogs" in the salient pointing towards Moscow. The latest dispatches report that the Germans are retreating everywhere southward and south-westward of Rjev. Russians Cross Dvina. A German force of tanks and artillery attempted to make a stand on the Dvina River betweeu Rjev and Velikiye Luki, but were beaten back. The Russians, pushing armour and guns across the ice at top speed, crossed the Dvina at three points. Marshal Timoshenko, despite bad weather and difficult terrain has again struck in a neighbouring front hitting towards Staraya Russa, which is the fifth imperilled German “hedgohog." These offensives promise the most valuable results. The positions can be summarised as:— (1) The Red Army is consistently thrusting back the front from Moscow. (2) Tho entire Volga River, from its source to its estuary, is now under Russian control, which will be a very import factor for the Soviet transport system in the spring and summer. (3) The synchronised Russian push southward from Bryansk, supported by the drive north-west of Kharkov, is preparing the way for the clearance of the strategic Kharkov-Moseow railway, which in Russian hands will consolidate ihe whole Russian advance south-west-ward, menacing the German forces in the Donetz Basin. Significantly observing that the front above Kharkov, which the Germans previously described as fluid, to-night is even more riuid, the Times Stockholm correspondent says that the chief Russian success is westward of Lgov, threatening Rylsk, the terminus of the

branch line from Korenyevo, which is endangered by the Russian capture of Sudja. After the capture of Sevsk, tho Russians are within striking distance of the Brvansk-Knotop-Kiev railway. The Russian progress in tho apparently interminable Orel battle is unimpressive measured in miles, but it already renders most precarious the road and railway linking Orel and Bryansk. It is doubtful whether a German withdrawal to escape envelopment at Orel can long be delayed. The Russians have closed in on the important 90-mile Viazma-Smolensk railway which is the strongest fortified railway line the Germans hold in Russia. The Germans are still striking hard in the Slaviansk sector, and a number of places in the Donetz area have changed hands many times. Berlin spokesmen assert that the winter operations in the Donetz Basin have virtually ended. A lull is inevitable until the Germans begin their summer campaign. The Berlin radio announced that after heavy artillery preparation the Ru - slans have launched massive attacks on both sides of Staraya Russa.