RUSSIAN WINTER CAMPAIGN

Southland Times, Issue 24685, 5 March 1942, Page 5

RUSSIAN WINTER CAMPAIGN

RESULTS REVIEWED NAZI PLANS UPSET (8.0.W.) RUGBY, March 3. Russian policy, brilliantly designed and brilliantly executed during recent months has resulted in the formation of a front far different from “the winter line,” which the German High Command planned and hoped to hold. The front now appears to run in a series of loops as a result of the operations of the past three months. The Germans have been holding on doggedly to certain bastions based on larger towns, while the Russians have been thrusting, mainly with cavalry and ski patrols, across the country in between. Such pivots of German resistance have been the areas round Schlusselburg, Lake Ilmen, Rzhev, Mojaisk, Orel, Kursk, Kharkov, Stalin and Taganrog. One bastion, Mojaisk, was captured by frontal and encircling attacks; another Staraya Russa is surrounded and is being reduced. Rzhev is almost surrounded and others are more or less threatened as the Russians enlarge and deepen their thrusts. The policy of retaining these strong points has certainly prevented any large scale Russian drive towards Central Europe, but it has not spared the Germans great losses in men and setbacks of morale, both of which they desire to conserve for the renewed spring campaign. Latterly, it appears that in order to hold up the Russian advance the Germans have been compelled to cling to bastions, even after the danger of encirclement becomes critical. v The deduction that may be drawn is that they feared that any further retreats might cause the front to give way and jeopardise their main gains in the east. The result, in any case, has been very heavy losses in Staraya Russa and the prospect of further sacrifices there and in the central pocket about Viazma. German strategy has been exploited by the Russians, who have been able to keep up pressure both against the bastions and in between. How far this strategy can be continued after the front is thawed and dried by April is a subject of speculation. It is thought that the Russians will, by then, be well supplied with material, and they should be better able to withstand the Panzer divisions than they were last year, when they suffered from treacherous surprise, and were relatively unfamiliar with German tactics. MORE RUSSIAN GAINS The Russians are now only 30 miles from the Dnieper bend, according to The Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent and they have reoccupied nine localities 30 miles east of Dnepropetrovsk and continue to advance. The Italians in this area were heavily defeated. The entire staff of one Italian divisional headquarters was either killed or taken prisoner. General Zhukov’s shock troops in the Smolensk district have reoccupied three fortified villages including, it is believed, Korobetz on the SmolenskSukhinichi railway. The Russians, are reported to have recaptured Theodosia once more, and also an important town in the Rjev district after a battle in which 1,100 Germans were killed. Much booty was captured.