CRITICAL SITUATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25427, 7 January 1944, Page 3

CRITICAL SITUATION

NAZI OFFICIAL'S ADMISSION GREATER TESTS TO COME LONDON, Jan. 5. Nazi officials are admitting frankly for the first time that Germany faces a critical situation. Gloomy reports reaching neutral countries every day from Germany suggest that the Nazis can see defeat ahead. The Berliner Boerssn Zeitung says: “Germany last year suffered political and military setbacks which would have brought collapse to any nation in the Allied camp. The new year will bring still greater tests to be overcome, not merely for fortifications, but for fanatical zeal.” German officers on the Russian front apparently fear that the terrible experiences their troops are suffering may turn the retreat into a rout. A panzer division officer in an astonishingly frank broadcast to Berlin said: “ Our comrades are becoming very disquieted. yje shoot like madmen, but the Russians have so many, guns and are such brilliant marksmen that we are unable to achieve anything. The communication line between our retreating troops is constantly interrupted by guerrillas.” A German war correspondent on the Russian front says: “It is almost impossible to live, let alone fight, on the eastern front. Our clothing is useless in the mud, rain, snow, and icy winds. Hot food never reaches our lines. We never get cigarettes It is so terrible you cannot think Many soldiers are ill, especially with gastric trouble. Life on the eastern front cannot be compared with anything.” The German Foreign Office spokesman told Swedish correspondents in Berlin: “The German winter line in Russia has been split by the deep penetration of the Russian Army.” The spokesman said the two fronts left in Russia were 360 and 480 miles long. He did not expect German counter-attacks to regain lost positions, but claimed that the Russians would be unable to roll up the German flanks because the two long fronts were still holding.