THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, June 24, 1942. THE RUSSIAN FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24950, 24 June 1942, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, June 24, 1942. THE RUSSIAN FRONT

While marking with a resolute confidence the first anniversary of the Nazi war machine's invasion of Soviet territory, the Russian people and' their Allies throughout the world show a sober realisation that the- time is one of crisis. From the battlefronts of the United Nations, excepting only the naval front which spans the Pacific, the present news is grave. In Russia the Germans seem likely, through the employment of a familiar technique of overwhelming force, exerted upon one objective, to reduce Sebastopol. The collapse of resistance in this last Crimean stronghold would, in conjunction with Rommel's success in Libya, introduce a new and menacing phase in the Nazi drive to the east. Yet while the cohesive pattern of the Axis grand strategy is the most conspicuous element in the world war at this moment, the Allies can take stock of the situation without serious misgiving. It is perhaps, as Mr W. M. Hughes has observed in his characteristically trenchant way, not the time to dwell with satisfaction upon the immense potential of the United Nations. Yet the Allies command great armies trained, equipped, and ready for war; their productive capacity is becoming an industrial miracle; they have the man-power to handle the machines of war. The direction of their great power into a dynamic force for striking at the enemy is the present preoccupation of Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt at the Washington conferences, of which good report has been received. It has become apparent that whatever form the so-called second front assumes, it must be in aid of Russia. The first year of the conflict on. the Eastern Front has closed with the balance of power as between Germany and the Soviet perilously poised. The same opportunities for defence in great depth, which the Soviet command exploited so brilliantly last summer, do not offer themselves, since the counteroffensive failed to drive the Germans back more than 50 to 150 miles from their most advanced positions. Nor can the scorched earth policy be so effectively applied, when the enemy has had months to perfect his supply organisation through the devastated regions evacuated by the Russians. But Russia is still strong in equipment, magnificent in courage, and has inflicted upon the Nazis terrible losses—losses which •must have drained the enemy reservoir of seasoned, veteran troops. More important, perhaps, than a catalogue assessment of the armed strength of the forces confronting each other on the Eastern Front is the factor emphasised by M. Kalinin—the high morale of the Soviet people and the Red Army, the deterioration in morale, and possibly in quality, of the German Army, which "has ceased to be homogeneous" and " looks more like a patchwork quilt." Russia remains, the grim, stubborn symbol of a spirit which cannot be dulled by conflict or broken by reverses, but the present German thrusts are a proof that Russia, engaged critically west of the Urals, threatened by Japan in the east, has its most difficult trials to face. Admiration for the heroic and successful year of the Soviet peoples' defence of their country, which has been given world-wide expression, can no longer blind the people of the United Nations to the fact that Russia requires direct aid if her capacity for resistance, and for striking back, is to be maintained.