TIDE OF CONFLICT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24277, 19 May 1942, Page 3

TIDE OF CONFLICT

GERMANS PAY PEARLY SUPPLIES FROM ALLIES AID TO RUSSIAN ARMIES (Reed. 0.50 p.m.) LONDON, May 18 A leaflet which the Russians have printed in German for distribution over the front states that the Germans between December and April lost in Russia 800,000 men killed and 300,000 wounded, frost-bitten or taken prisoner. This, says the leaflet, has forced the Germans to reform 35 infantry divisions and three armoured divisions intended for the spring operations. Twenty-five of these divisions have already been stibstantia Ilv battered. It is stated that the German nir force lost 16,000 aeroplanes and 88,000 airmen in the first nine months of the war. Marshal Tirnoshenko, in an order of the day to his troops at the opening of the Kharkov offensive, said: "We are entering a new period of the war. namely, the period of liberation of the Soviet lands from the Hitlerite rabble." The T ' mes says that, in the fighting that lies ahead the German army can and probably will gain considerable successes, but not on the same scale as last year. Most observers agree that the Germany army of 1942 is not the army of last year. War materials amounting to 1.500,000 tons havo already been sent to Russia's northern ports by the Allies, says the 8.8.C. industrial observer. In the south, an average of 20 trucks a day loaded with war materials are crossing the Persian frontier to Russia. The Soviet Ambassador to Washington, M. Litvinoff, in a broadcast to the Russian people last night, emphasised the enormous industrial strength of the United States, which, he said, was already producing more than 1000 aircraft a week and, by the end of this year would have 2,000,000 pilots. One United States factory, he said, was turning out a heavy trainload of tanks every day. Ships were being launched from 60 different shipyards in the United States. INVASION PLANS SMASH RUSSIA FIRST GERMAN PLANE PRODUCTION LONDON, May 17 Best-informed military circles in Berlin predict that an attempt to invade Britain will be made this autumn if Russia is smashed by mid-summer, says Joseph Grigg, United Press correspondent at Berlin, who has reached Lisbon after two years in Germany. He adds that everyone in Germany believes that the crisis of the war will occur this summer. Because of the immense reserves and vast booty that Germany captured she is not short of guns or munitions. The chief shortages affecting war power are some foodstuff's, fats and some metals which are needed to harden steel for aeroplane engines. Plane production is a constant source of worry to the High Command. The output is estimated at between 1100 and 2500 a month, and the total available machines about 35,000, many of which are no match for the latest Allied ' planes. Hitler evidently hoped to win I with the 1939 plane types and the j necessity for new models has slowed output. A full-out effort against Russia is likely within a month, coupled with an intensive U-boat campaign to cut off Russia and Britain from American arms supplies. U-boats are being built at the rate of about IB a month and probably one in three is bein<j sunk. SURPRISE EXERCISE CHURCHILL'S REQUEST (Reed. 9.35 p.m.) LONDON, May 17 When Mr. Churchill visited a Bomber Command aerodrome on Friday he asked the station commander to suppose the enemy parachute troops had landed in the field outside the aerodrome, says the British official wireless. At once the commander put the aerodrome defences into action. Sirens sounded and all over the station officers, airmen and W.A.A.I'Vs took up their positions. The ground crews and maintenance staff put down their tools and rushed for rifles. All guns were manned. Troops moved at. the double to various parts of the station, and every point of attack was covered. No one had expected the exercise. It was Mr. Churchill's own idea, and he gave no warning of it as he hurried in and out of the hangars, climbed the parapets and looked into the shelters. Everywhere he asked the men questions about their duties and their weapons. He was specially interested to see the flying crews arm themselves and rush to defend their aircraft. DOCTOR OF LAWS HONOUR FOR MR. NASH (Herd. 9.2<! p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 17 Tufts College, at Medford, Massachusetts, has conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon Mr. Walter Nash, New Zealand Minister in Washington. Mr. Nash was the principal speaker at the commencement of exercises. He stated that flu- Democracies must plan a post-war world m which all men and women will have equal access to the spiritual as well as the material needs for a full life. "It is for Democratic people, convinced as we are that the fight is for progress against reaction, to see that peace is planned as carefully fus the war is planned," said Air. Nash.