INVASION PLANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25175, 16 March 1943, Page 3

INVASION PLANS

SECOND FRONT DEMAND SPECULATION IN BRITAIN (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, Mar. 14. The Allied Nations’ projected invasion of the Continent has been the subject of guarded speculation for weeks. This became inevitable after Casablanca. More recently, with the early thaw in South Russia, the German counter-attacks towards Kharkov and events in North Africa, these speculations have been given a sharp edge of urgency, both for political and military reasons. The demand for a second front with all its implications is still latent, for the longer direct intervention in Europe by the Allies is delayed the better the Germans’ plans will be suited. The position at Kharkov, although serious, is not yet regarded as cause for dismay. The Moscow correspondent of the Sunday Times, commenting on the Russian front, says: “There has been no serious deterioration of the Russian position, but, whereas until the middle of February everything was on the credit side, there is now a debit side. What really matters is not what - Russia' has lost, ■ but what the Russians have not succeeded in gaining. They have not reached the Dnieper, which would have been an ideal conclusion to the winter campaign, but tbe distances proved perhaps over-great and the time a little over-shqrt. The thaw came early in South Russia, and the Russians advanced so rapidly that it was not always possible to restore the railway lines to the Russian gauge with sufficient speed. “The great question is whether the Russians consider that they can exhaust the Germans sufficiently outside Kharkov to make it worth while holding as a springboard for renewing the drive towards the Dnieper, or whether, with the great enemy force involved, they consider the holding of such a salient over-costly. Much depends on whether the Russians are planning offensive or defensive operations for the coming month on that front. For an offensive Kharkov is an asset, for the defensive a liability." . Regarding North Africa. Mr J. L. Garvin, in the Sunday Express, points out that the Allied results have been excellent in every way but one—they still tend to throw back the time table for military co-operation with Russia in Europe. “At any cost we have to smash the Nazi tactics of obstruction in North Africa within a couple of months from .now, or else push our arms into Hitlerite Europe by alternative means.” . . Mr Garvin expresses the opinion that it is still likely that the Germans may remain in Tunisia longer than we like or can afford in view of the compelling demands for invasion by early summer or before the situation in the heart of the Soviet may reach once more a pitch of crisis. It is quite possible while it lasts that this will be the most sinister ordeal, yet it may be acutely fateful to the whole war.