Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1941 GERMANS TRY AGAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 5 August 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1941 GERMANS TRY AGAIN

LAST week-end was the time Hitler j and his Nazi chiefs had planned to dine in the Kremlin. Six weeks to Moscow was their boast. But the j week-end has come and gone with the Germans a long way from their ; goal in any of the sectors on the | Eastern front. As the campaign runs ! into the seventh week the Germans | find themselves held up in the LeninJ grad sector and round Smolensk by j the nature of the country and the 1 unorthodox methods of the Soviet , army, which has been launching | counter-attacks. Smolensk, scene of : a famous battle in Napoleon’s camI paign, has achieved a fresh place in 1 military history because of the titanic j struggle that has been waged around it. This, the biggest battle of the war, still goes on, with each side trying to outlast the other. After having spent much of their strength in the north and central sectors, the Germans are now concen- I | trating on a drive in the south to- ! wards Kiev, capital and key strategic | city of the Ukraine. Employing their j usual tactics of encirclement by | thrusting out the pincer jaws from ! different directions, the most advanc- | I ed Nazi forces are apparently about! 1 45 miles distant from Kiev in a southwesterly direction. The other end of i the arc, in the north-west, in the 1 region of Ikorost, is nearly twice as I , far away. The Russians are now! countering this new onslaught as they have been doing those round Smolensk and further north. Up till | now the Germans have not considered i I the Ukraine their immediate main ob- J ! jeetive. The present attack is the i biggest they have launched there, and it could become dangerous. Running parallel with the Dnieper is an important railway which connects central Russia with the mining and grain i centres of the Ukraine. Capture of Kiev would cut this communication. , In addition to the drive against the j Ukrainian capital, the Germans, with 1 the aid of Rumanians, arc moving i against Odessa, the main Russian | Black Sea port. Kiev and Odessa i would be the first real prizes of the | Russian campaign if the Germans j could get them. Latest reports, however, indicate 1 that Russian resistance to this threat j is stiffening as it did in the other sectors when the situation became critical. If the Russians can continue to hold the attackers here also the Germans will have been foiled along the whole 1800 miles of the front and | will need to organise a fresh drive. | This slow progress, which has deve- | loped into almost a stalemate in the | north and centre, is imposing a tre- | mendous strain on the German war | machine. Great wastage of men and | material is taking place on both sides. |, The six weeks that have passed have | allowed time for the Russians to | mobilise their military strength, sc | there does not seem to be any prosg pect now of a short and decisive cam* J paign in the east before the winter. | j Soviet tactics have amazed every- | body, the Germans not least. Behind |!the veil of secrecy they have built | up ingenious methods which have | come as a surprise to the enemy. Ap- | parently their secret air-raid defence 1J system in Moscow is every whit as | good as they have claimed it to be |! It is reported that it may be revealed I i to Britain. This is the kind of new II development the Germans have M found themselves up against at near- | ly every stage of the campaign. p! So far at least Hitler’s Russiar venture must be a bitter disappointment to him. If he continues to be checkmated there it would be typica | of him to try a diversion elsewhere i before the winter to cover up hi: j Russian failure. Once again Mi < Churchill has warned Britain tha i the invasion season is at hand. Pres L sure on Vichy to let the Germans int< '& 1 North Africa continues. At the othe: end of the Mediterranean Turke: i- ‘ stands well within the orbit of Naz d | aggression. Hitler is the type o

I will try to find sonic way of rcl'uri lushing reputations much tarnished . by Soviet arms.