Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1941 GERMAN GAINS IN RUSSIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 19 August 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1941 GERMAN GAINS IN RUSSIA

j THE latest gains of the Germans In \ ! the Ukraine are important. General I Rundstedt, commanding four separate armies totalling any- j I thing up to a million and a half men, has been pushing forward at the rate of some twenty miles a d«ty until he has pierced close to the heart of industrial Ukraine. The Soviet naval base and export centre of Nikolayev, ! a town about as big as Wellington, j lying at the mouth of the Bug on the , j Black Sea. has had to be evacuated j by the Russians. They have also given up Krivoi-Rog, about a hundred miles north-east of Nikolayev in the big bend of the Dnieper River. This is one of the keys to industrial Ukraine, centre of the iron ore fields, an important manufacturing town of well over 30,000 people, and a railway junction. A glance at the map printed to-day will show in what peril the fall of these two centres i places the big Soviet Black Sea port of Odessa, with its population of nearly half a million. It is now almost surrounded and may have to yield. The Germans claim to have thrust further into the valuable Dnieper bend than Krivoi-Rog by the capture of Nikopol (not shown on the printed map), a hundred and thirty miles from the mouth of the river. Opposing General Rundstedt in this sector, Marshal Budenny, a soldier i with a good reputation, has so far been unable to stem the Nazi thrust across the Ukraine, though the Germans have been made to pay dearly for their fresh gains. Budenny is carrying out a retiring movement to the line of the swift-flowing Dnieper, where a natural barrier has been reinforced by defences recently constructed. It is expected that, while contesting the enemy advance over the intervening ground, he will make a stand along the Dnieper. Withdrawal to this new defence line leaves much of the precious Ukraine uncovered. Besides Odessa, Kiev must be in greater danger than it was. The scorched earth policy of the Russians will also apply to much that might be useful in the industrial towns which have just fallen. Though their capture may not mean great immediate gain in raw materials to the Germans, the Russians have lost valuable sources of supplies of which they stand in great need, while railway communications in the Ukraine and Black Sea area will be seriously upset. The other sector of fierce activity lies around Leningrad. Here the | Germans are making another determined bid for the former Czarist capital by thrusting out two prongs in a familiar pincers movement. One is advancing east from Estonia along the coast of the Baltic. The Germans, apparently, now command all of Estonia, and what Soviet troops are left there may be cut off. The other prong plans to drive in from the south with its right flank round about Lake Ilmen, which is about a hundred miles distant from Leningrad. This action is also designed to protect the German flank from counter-attacks in the central sector where Marshal Timoshenko’s forces are said to be very active. While there is renewed lighting along the whole length of the 2000 : mile front, the Germans are now i striving to achieve objectives at either ; end of it. They appear to have given up trying to reach Moscow in the meantime. No effort will be spared to get to Leningrad. Its capture would give them important sea communications, and leave Russia no' part of the Baltic in which to use her ; fleet. Likewise, in the south, Soviet activity in the Black Sea will be seriously hampered by enemy command ;of part of the northern shores. The j latest thrust there has undoubtedly j brought Hitler his most significant successes of the campaign. But these are, small recompense for two months of

tci'i'iilc lighting in which losses of men and materials on both sides have been colossal. The Nazis are making short-term gains which the Russians have done their best to deny them. But if Hitler looks at his time schedule he will see that he is a long way from where he planned to he. Besides lighting the particular battles now in progress, the Nazis have to make preparations for spending a winter in Russia. They cannot relish that prospect, but from it there now seems no escape in spite of the frenzied efforts they are making.