ON TOWARD BERLIN

Southland Times, Issue 24654, 28 January 1942, Page 5

ON TOWARD BERLIN

STALIN’S HOPES ■ OF SUCCESS

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE IN SPRING

LONDON, January 26.

There is not likely to be any German offensive in Russia this year, says the military correspondent of The Daily Express. Stalin does not intend that the Germans should ever regain the initiative and he is more likely to launch a spring offensive

himself. He is confident that the Russians will be in Berlin before the end of this year.

Many experts with an inside

knowledge of the facts support his belief.

The daily increasing strength of the Red Army’s attacks is now confidently believed to have caused a vital change in German war plans. Announcements of striking new Russian successes can be expected soon. Within the next four weeks operations on a scale not yet attempted by the Russians will be launched.

There are several reasons why Hitler in all probability cannot stage a comeback in Russia. His casualties already are so vast that he is facing a grave shortage of effective man power. Germany cannot make good the losses in equipment she is suffering and will continue to suffer in her disastrous war against the Soviet By summer Germany will begin to feel the oil shortage. ACTIVE OPERATIONS British Press messages from Moscow and Stockholm foreshadow the announcement of further extensive Russian advances in the central sector but the Soviet High Command for the present has confined itself to reporting that active operations against the German Fascist troops continued during the night. Marshal Timoshenko’s armies, operating southward of Kharkov, are reported to have advanced 50 miles in two days, according to a Stockholm report. — The Soviet Information Bureau, refuting a German claim that the Russians lost over 1,000,000 dead in the past six weeks, says the Soviet losses in killed during this period were 30,000. A special communique gives details of the booty captured on the central front between January 16 and 25. In this period 694 inhabited localities were liberated and over 12,000 Germans killed. The booty includes 69 tanks, five armoured cars, 268 guns, 384 machineguns, 1842 rifles, 1979 motor-vehicles, over 100,000 shells, 20,000 air bombs and nearly 2,000,000 cartridges.