Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1942. AN OFFENSIVE OUT OF GEAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 June 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1942. AN OFFENSIVE OUT OF GEAR.

else may be thought about the outlook on the ' Russian front, there cannot be any doubt that the German timetable is to an extent in disarray, and that the great oifensixe of which Hitler and his accomplices have made so many trumpeting announcements was intended to be under way well before the present date. Last year the opening of the Nazi attack on Russia was delayed until June 22 largely on account of the extent to which'Axis plans were thrown out of gear by the forlorn hope stand of Greece and Yugoslavia and still more by the lengthening out of resistance in Greece and Crete by British and Imperial troops, including the New Zealand Division. It has been estimated that the' initial German attack on Russia was delayed in this way for at least six weeks. This year Hitler and his fellow-gangsters have even better reasons than they had last year for pressing the offensive against Russia with all possible vigour and expedition. As someone said the other day, it is now or never -with the Nazis. If they cannot sweep to victory in the remaining half of this year they will be doomed definitely to defeat, whether the remaining duration of the war be long or short. Only the fighting power of the Russian armies, which Hitler in his announcements to the world has “annihilated” nearly five times over, and the distractions to which the Nazis are subjected elsewhere, notably by the expanding power and effect of the British air offensive and the rising menace of land attack in Western Europe, will account for the Fuehrer and his generals, on whom he is reported again to be leaning, having allowed precious weeks to go by without launching the powerful assault on Russia on which their remaining hopes are centred so largely. Affairs on. the Eastern front are not yet at the stage at which it can be expected that everything will go well and smoothly from the standpoint of Russia and the other Allied nations.' The balance of advantage thus far, however, since the spring campaign opened, appears to incline decidedly in Russia’s favour. The results of the successes gained by Marshal Timoshenko’s troops in their recent offensive on the Kharkovfront probably count for a great deal more than the only outstanding success the Germans have won since winter —the expulsion of the Russians from the Kerch Peninsula, in the Crimea. At present the Germans are engaged in yet another great onslaught on Sebastopol. As news stands they have made no headway in this undertaking, but, favoured as they are by possessing ample airfields in the Crimea, it may be that they can take Sebastopol, at a price. Even if they do, however, and so become completely masters of the Crimea, they will be faced still by the task of overcoming the resistance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and that of the powerful Soviet army holding the Kuban marshes on the mainland side of the Kerch Strait. The magnitude of the problem confronting the Germans in Russia is emphasised by a report received yesterday which spoke of the opening of a German attack on a wide front between Leningrad and the Valdai hills—an attack possibly indicating the opening of a great offensive. Given freedom of choice, the Germans almost certainly would choose to concentrate their main energies on an attempt to drive, in the south, into and beyond the Caucasus. It is likely, however, that they are in no position to concentrate as they would wish on a southern drive without making their position much more secure than it is on many other parts of the .front. South of Leningrad, for instance, in the area of about 150 miles between Lake Ilmen and Rzhev, with the Valdai Hills roughly midway, the Russians during the winter drove a deep and wide salient into the German line. It is presumably to the reduction of this salient, as a necessary preliminary to Hie renewal of their attack on Leningrad, that the Germans are now directing their efforts. Reports thus far indicate that they are being met as firmly by the Russians as in the areas far to the south in which the heaviest fighting has occurred since the spring. There are doubtless endless possibilities of detail gain or loss on the Eastern front, but the commanding facts are that while the Germans stand desperately in need of quick and decisive results, they are faced in Russia by armies and a nation more than ever keyed to a maximum effort, not merely of resistance but of powerful retaliation.