THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1941 INDOMITABLE RUSSIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24103, 23 October 1941, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1941 INDOMITABLE RUSSIA

Six weeks, 10 weeks, or even as long as three months, was counted by the Nazis as the longest period the Russians could hold out when the German Army began the vast offensive on June 22. I'our full months have passed since then with the Germans still falling short of a decision. In the 18th week of the campaign, they are still wading in mud and blood outside Moscow and Leningrad, while in the Ukraine, their third major objective, they have still to reduce the industrial eastern fringe of the Donetz Basin. They have travelled far, up to 500 and 600 miles, but have not yet arrived. Time and again their war machine has been refuelled and restarted, only to bog down once more, brought to a standstill by distance and the desperate devotion of their despised foe. Truly the tenacity and pugnacity of the Russians beggar description and defy any ordinary praise. To the inhuman efficiency and deadly fire power of the enemy, they have opposed tough bodies, steady minds, and a stubborn spirit in an epic of endurance. By all military standards they have been several times overwhelmed and utterly defeated. On every occasion, nevertheless, they have refused to recognise surrender, have shaken themselves free, formed a new front, and gone on fighting. This power of recovery has baffled the enemy. Many times he has whooped of triumph, only to find it had eluded him. Goebbels has been reduced to the honourable jibe that the Russian soldier is too stupid to know when he is beaten. All this should be remembered as a corrective to pessimism when viewing the present serious situation on the Eastern Front. Moscow appears to be gravely threatened, but so were Kiev and Smolensk on any day for six weeks before they fell. Leningrad's fall has been announced as imminent in every week for three montlfs past. It is three weeks today since Hitler launched "the greatest struggle in history" against an enemy "already broken." Still his converging armies have not closed on Moscow, being caught in a death grapple scores of miles north, south and west of the capital. The initial impetus has been lost, the spearhead blunted—not a bad performance fnr the "already broken" Russians. Five days ago, with fanfare of trumpets and band music, Hitler announced the "annihilation" of eight of Marshal Timoshenko's armies, including over 70 divisions, and the capture of 648,196 prisoners, 1197 tanks and 5229 guns. The armies that had been "annihilated" and therefore ceased to exist last week, have been fighting uncommonly well since then. They have given a little ground in the centre, but the flanks at Kalinin and north of Orel have been held. And in the centre the Germans are no nearer to Moscow than Ngaruawahia or Hamilton is to Auckland. Now it is a question of which contestant can get his second wind first, can reinforce and reorganise soonest. A great deal must depend on the reserves available and whether they can be speedily brought to bear. Both sides are reported to be bringing them up and throwing them into the wide arc west of Moscow. The position must be considered as critical, but past Russian performances encourage the hope that the Germans will be I stopped short of their objective. More ominous is the constantly eastward trend of the companion battle in the Southern Ukraine. At Taganrog the enemy has passed beyond the Ukraine into the Don Cossack region, now officially named the North Caucasian area. That revealing appellation underlines the threat in the enemy thrust on Rostov, nodal point and crossroads for traffic between Russia and the Caucasus and Iran, and between the Caspian and Black Seas via the Volga and Don Rivers. The same drive threatens to turn the left flank of the Russian defence line covering the Donetz Basin and the vital coal mines and heavy industries concentrated there. The southern bastion, the city of Stalin, of 462,000 inhabitants, is already the centre of fighting while Kharkov has been left in the same sort of salient as was Kiev a few weeks ago. The situation on this southern flank presents in uncomfortably sharp relief the danger that threatens the whole Russian cause. Transport and supply are essential if the Russians are to maintain their resistance on the present grand scale, but German advances are continually cutting across transport lines and cutting off sources of supply. An answer to the increasing insistence of that problem must be found if the faith and valour of the indomitable Russian soldier is to be vindicated.