The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1945 RED ARMY SUCCESSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25105, 19 January 1945, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1945 RED ARMY SUCCESSES

No limit can be set on the mighty Russian offensive. Its opening has been so highly successful, the initial penetration so deep, and it is backed by such masses of men and material that anything is possible. Moscow has not stated any objectives but the present posture of military affairs in Poland recalls Marshal Stalin's forecast made before the Supreme Soviet on November 6. "The lied Army," he said, "is left with one final mission: to achieve, jointly with the armies of our Allies, the complete rout of German-Fascist forces, to finish off the Fascist beast in its own lair, and to hoist the banner of victory over Berlin. I here are grounds for believing that this final problem will be solved at n<> distant date." The Red armies are giving the firmest grounds for that belief seen since November. Their sweep toward Cracow and into Czestochowa and Tomaszov, their swift capture of Warsaw, their break across the Narew River in North Poland—these multiple victories reeall the broad sweep of the AngloAmericans across France in AugustSeptember. It seemed then that nothing could save the Germans from final overthrow. Yet somehow they patched their tattered garment of defence and won more than a reprieve. The fact gives pause in assessing the bright promise in Poland. Like their western Allies five months ago, the Red armies are racing away from bases and supplies while pushing the enemy back on his. Logistics may once again prove the limiting factor. Its operation halted the enemy before Moscow, Alamein and Stalingrad, the Anglo-Americans short of the Rhine, and the Russians cast of Warsaw last summer. The central and southern plain of Poland in which the Red armies are now operating has been called a "logistic nightmare" by the Germans. It is sparsely railed and possesses few good roads. That would be one reason why the Russians delayed thenoffensive—until land and water were frozen hard and their columns could drive cross-country almost regardless of road and rail. So they may be able to dispel the "logistic nightmare" and bring the elusive enemy to a reckoning. He is counting, of course, on the mobility that will increase his defensive power when manoeuvring close in front of such densely roaded and railed provinces as Silesia and Saxony. He has been exploiting the same advantage in the Rhineland. Yet it must be a question whether he can muster the reserves to cover his open eastern front against the terrific weight and power Marshal Stalin has brought to bear. A month ago the Kremlin allowed it to be disclosed that the Soviet would employ three army groups in the first great blow and perhaps a further three groups later It is probable that all six have been unleashed in the spreading offensive from south to north—first Koniev in Galicia, then Zhukov in Central Poland, arid finally Rokossovsky, north of Warsaw. The combination of these three great captains must resound ominously in Berlin. The pity is that their combined effort in the East has no complement ir. the West. It appears certain from several indications that such a concerted assault had been intended. Had it materialised, it should have proved irresistible. Instead, the wily Rundstedt anticipated General Eisenhower by his spoiling stroke in the Ardennes and threw the AngloAmerican machine temporarily out of gear. Nevertheless the Wehrinacht has not escaped damage. Its offensive concentration in the West has no doubt sapped its defensive strength in the East. The AngloAmericans in the West, and in Italy too, have contributed to the striking successes won by the Red armies this last week. Koniev's shattering opening in the south turned eyes in the first place on the Moravian Gate to Vienna and the Beuthen Gate into Silesia. His swift advance to Czestochowa—lls miles in six days —has loosened both hinges, even if it should prove that the enemy still holds the master-key of Cracow. But these dazzling prospects were scarcely appreciated before Zhukov burst across the middle Vistula to Tomaszov, far on the road to Lodz with liberated Warsaw behind him. Koniev at Czestochowa can now be seen as southern flank guard for Zhukov's drive on the direct road to Berlin. There he has already turned the river line of the upper Warthe, the second to last natural barrier—the Oder being the lastbetween Zhukov and Berlin. Rokossovsky's lunge in the northern sector can similarly be seen as support for Zhukov's right flank. Whether Vienna or industrial Silesia or Berlin is the objective can be left to the event. Developments are com ing so fast that the answer should not be long delayed. WARSAW LIBERATED After more than five years of slaughter, destruction and terrorism, what is left of Warsaw has been freed from German occupation by the westward-driving Russian armies. All reports indicate that not much is left. The city is in ruins, and of the million people who inhabited it before the war only a fraction are still alive. About a third of its peacetime citizens were Jews. Their survivors must be few indeed ; the overwhelming majority were done to death long since in the Ger-man-created ghetto or taken away to die in extermination camps. Warsaw has known many vicissitudes since it became the capital of Poland four centuries ago. It has been possessed by Swedes, Prussians, Austrians, Russians and Germans; and has been the centre of two puppet States. It has known sieges and insurrections and many' battles have been fought in its vicinity. Yet nothing in the past could equal the sufferings lately inflicted by the hands of Teutons under the obsession that they belonged to a master race and that the Slav was little better than sub-human, with the Jew one grade lower still. Indeed, it is fairly safe to say that nothing before this war has surpassed the tragedy of Warsaw for violence,

duration and the number of people involved. Events in warfare often fail to work out as a dramatist would like to have them. Although in 19.39 Britain and France guaranteed Poland's integrity and went to war over the bombing of Warsaw, no British or French army has brought liberation to the city. That has been done by the forces of Russia, which when war broke out was not a belligerent, but a semi-ally of Germany. However, British people may fairly claim that if they had not kept faith with Poland by fighting Germany-single-handed for a time —in the west, this week's Russian triumph, well-deserved as it is, might never have been achieved. BRITISH FARMERS' VISIT

In various ways good will result from the five weeks' tour of NewZealand that has been made by a delegation representing the three Farmers' Unions of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The visitors main object, as they repeatedly stated, has been to urge collaboration among the farmers of Britain and the Dominions —and more than that, among farmers in all countries —for planned and rationalised trade in primary products. It is quite natural that British agriculture, which has marvellously reorganised itself and increased its output to meet urgent wartime needs, should wish for a sure position on the present level when peace returns. The New Zealand fanning representatives who met the delegation in Wellington fully and fairly recognised the claims of their fellows in the Old Country and approved the proposal to hold a conference of primary producers' representatives in Loudon next October. The meeting also endorsed in principle a plan to establish an international organisation of primary producers. It is obvious that the ends in view cannot be attained by consultation and planning on the part of producers alone; the exchange of all kinds of commodities as well as of services is involved, and other industries as well as Governments, representing the consumers, also come into the picture. However, the proposed conference will probably be regarded by New Zealand farmers as a most desirable first step toward organised trade and the stability and security they desire in the post-war era. The British visitors have had time to gather much first-hand information about New Zealand farming and to tell of what has been done in Britain since 1939. They have also offered some tactful and needed criticism, which will no doubt be turned to account by those who inspired it.