FIRST PLAN FOILED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25176, 17 March 1943, Page 3

FIRST PLAN FOILED

GERMAN AIMS

STRONG SOVIET DEFENCE (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 15., “So far the Germans have not achieved what was probably their first objective—a vast encii'clement of the Russians through Izyum, 60 miles to the south, and Byelgord, 45 miles to the north of Kharkov, to sweep up behind the city,” says the Moscow correspondent of The Times. “The stubbornness of the Russian rearguard action forced the Germans to concentrate on their secondary objective and divert their main forces against Kharkov. “The Germans may aim to use up Russian reserves, this robbing them of a creative pause. The Welirmacht’s determined defence of Orel is intended to prevent the release from the Upper Don of armies for an attack against the Germans in the Donetz salient. Similarly the German stubbornness west of Rostov and in the Kuban area is intended to tie up Russian forces and draw their sting in the south. The extraordinary vigour with which the Germans have reacted to the Russian drive in the Ukraine—including the stripping of armour from the west — suggests the implication that the Red Army’s mid-winter successes have been very far-reaching, and that the Germans are now making a powerful attempt to upset the major strategical aims of the Russians. “Broadcasting to the Red Army in the Ukraine—it is, believed at Stalin’s orders —M. Mitin, a Communist Party committeeman, dramatically appealed to the troops to remember the Stalingrad victories and drive back the Germans. “Do not give a moment’s respite to the hated enemy,” he said. “Destroy him wherever he is found,

unless he surrenders. That is the order of your Commander-in-chief, Stalin.” The Berlin radio’s military commentator, Captain Sertorius, claims that Germans from Kharkov have reached Chuguyev, and that other forces have made considerable progress towards Volshansk. . Another Berlin commentator, Major Schaefer, warns the German leaders not to indulge in optimism because of the Kharkov success. The Russians, he said, had greatly profited by their war experience regarding equipment, strategy, tactics, and troop leadership. They had successfully copied German methods, and shown skill in attack and defence.