WORKERS AND TROOPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22478, 13 January 1943, Page 5

WORKERS AND TROOPS

Imperative Necessity In

Germany

Preparations For Ruthless Drive

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assu.—Copyright (Rec. 6.25) LONDON. Jan. 11. Lieutenant-General Dietmar, the German military commentator, speaking on the German radio, made the significant admission that after their great exertions an increased desire to relax was making itself felt among the German troops on the southern front in Russia. He further stated that the Soviet offensive this year was much more concentrated than that of last year and was directed against the German flanks. The Soviet forces had been able to break through to an appreciable depth. “Nobody can predict,” said General Dietmar, “what the outcome of this gigantic Soviet effort will be. It must be admitted that the Soviet reserves in human material are far greater than those of the Germans. We shall have to give our front the numerical superiority that is lacking at the moment. The German nation must understand that henceforth a sharper distinction will have to be made between reserved and unreserved occupations. More men will have to go to the front to relieve those who are overburdened. Numbers alone cannot decide the campaign, but they cannot be neglected without danger. The Soviet is far ahead of us in exploiting manpower.”

General Dietmar added that Germany needed troops for occupied territories and workers as well for the economic organisation of Europe to resist the blockade. “Thus we had too few at the front. This is now being changed.” Russia chose the right moment for an offensive —a moment when the Germans were too weakened by the Wehrmacht’s prolonged offensive to stage a large-scale counter-blow. The situation generally is serious but has comforting elements, the most important of which is our ability to bring reserves quickly from other sectors.”

A correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” somewhere in Europe says the German public is being prepared for a ruthless new labour drive to secure an increased output and a greater flow of recruits to the front. Big labour camps are being built near factories with communal sleeping and eating arrangements, which foreshadow the end of many people of family life for the duration. Neutral countries are being combed for German citizens. The Germans are sending special doctors to re-examine citizens, in neutral countries, previously found unfit. Working and living conditions will be imposed accompanied “by hard and almost unbearable restrictions on the individual in favour of the nation’s life.”