The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1942. SPRING OFFENSIVE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22214, 6 March 1942, Page 4

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1942. SPRING OFFENSIVE

WITH attention so eagerly focused on the activities of Japan, it is apt to be overlooked that the great battle at present being waged in Russia, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, is but an extension of the one being fought in the Pacific. Within a few weeks of the commencement of the Russian offensive, Hitler was boasting “this enemy is already broken and will not lift his bead again.” But as the weeks lengthened into months, Russia still fought on. The end of the first stage of this titanic struggle on a 2000mile front was reached when Germany, after tremendous thrusts, occupied huge tracts of Russian territory equivalent in area to that of Greater Germany. But this colossal drive had not attained its main purpose, the capture of Leningrad. Moscow' and Sebastopol. The second phase of the campaign commenced early in October when Hitler announced that he was about to launcn “the greatest offensive of all time, and that Moscow would be occupied by German troops within a few weeks. As October gave way to November, the blitzkrieg pace of the panzer legions was reduced to a crawl by the wastes of autumn mud. Then came frost and snow' and with it the gradual conversion of the German offensive into defensive action—the stage at which it is today.

What can be described as the third stage of the campaign will commence in a few weeks —Hitler says six weeks—when the Germans proclaim that they will launch a spring offensive that will take them to India. At the beginning of the war with Germany, last June, it was estimated that the Soviet had mobilised 10,000,000 men. It is considered that 3,000,000 of these men are now casualties —dead, wounded and prisoners of war. But Russia was prepared for large casualties. All through the summer, far behind the battlefront, a new army of ] 0,000,000 soldiers was trained for the winter campaign. The continued successes that the Russians are now enjoying can be accounted for by the utilisation of this fresh army. Germany, quickly discovering the strength of these fresh reserves, was compelled to fall back on her own reserves, which she was carefully husbanding for the spring, as the German High Command was confident it could stabilise the Russian front for the winter. Active campaigning would more or less cease and they would be able to throw in fresh troops from the line to which they had advanced during the previous summer at the cost of so many men and so much material. But the Russian leaders had their own ideas about the matter and, as one Soviet General stated, “the Russian spring offensive has already started.” All along the line the Russians are making progress. It is in Southern Russia, where Hitler hopes to make his “break-through” to the oil of the Caucasus, that many of the most ferocious battles arc being fought. Knowing the importance of the Crimea as the springboard for this offensive, the Germans are straining every ounce of energy to retain it. In spite of Russian counter-offensives, they have not relaxed their grip on Sebastopol in the south-western part of the Crimea. So far they have not been able to capture the city, but they have largely succeeded in making it untenable for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Important units of this fleet are now largely making use of their alternative naval base, Novorossisk, on the coast of the Caucasus. Marshal Timoshenko with his new armies is steadily advancing southward, and before long the Russians will be able to lay siege to Kharkov, the ancient capital of the Ukraine. It appears that the Red armies are manoeuvring in an endeavour to cut off the Germans from the Crimea at the narrow part of the peninsula—the Perekop Isthmus—which serves as a bottle-neck, but so far this effort has been unsuccessful. In spite of these tremendous efforts, the Germans still retain their hold on the Crimea, and the capture of Mojaisk was off-set by the recapture of Theodosia by the Germans with more than 10,000 prisoners. The Germans are still within 20 miles of Rostov, the centre of the traffic between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea via the Volga and the Don Rivers. The Germans are also close to Stalino, where there are important oil pipelines. The Donetz Basin has been the scene of much fighting, for the Russians are making strong efforts to regain this rich district, which previously was the centre of great coal mines and heavy industries. In the northern districts the Russians have made important gains, not the least being the recapture of 10,000 miles of military railway which the Germans had repaired and laid down in the vicinity of . of Moscow. To many people the territorial gains that the Russians have made during the winter months may have been disappointing, but it must be remembered that, much more , than territorial gains, it is the purpose of the Soviet leaders to destroy the German army in the field. Territorial gains arc secondary to this. If they have hindered Hiller from making full preparations for his vaunted spring offensive, then they have achieved a great deal. Hitler proclaims that soon he will strike at the Caucasus and then march “to the gates of India.” Japan has a similar objective. It is of vital importance that every available aid should be given to Russia to see that Hitler’s aim to link up with Japan in India is frustrated. So it can be seen that the battle for India, and to a lesser extent Australia, is being fought out in the frozen wastes of Russia as well as in the tropical jungles of Java.