REPAYMENT IN FULL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1942, Page 4

REPAYMENT IN FULL

PROMISED TO THE GERMANS IN RUSSIA SOVIET WRITER’S WAR SURVEY. “WE SHALL ADVANCE AGAIN.” The outlook on the Eastern Front before the Russians launched their offensive in the Caucasus and in the region of Stalingrad was surveyed by the Russian journalist, Iliya Ehrenburg, in “Soviet War News”:— The other day I met a coward He said to me: “Last winter we claimed that the myth of the invincibility of the German army had been shattered. And now look—they are again advanc-i ing. . . Nobody ever suggested that the Germans could not win victories. What we did say was that they could be conquered. The whole world—and above all the Germans —have seen the proof of that. Hitler's troops have gained a number of successes in the south, but those successes have not made them invincible. We know from practical experience that the Germans can be given a hiding. The Red Army halted them near Voronezh. The Germans got to Rostov, not because a road opens before them wherever they wish to go, but because they found a gap in the Soviet defences.

The Red Army is holding the Germans before Stalingrad For many weeks already the Germans have been trying in vain to break through to the Volga. What is stopping them? Mountains? Pill-boxes? No! Men. Where are the Nazi swaggerers of last year who wore their caps so jauntily? Where are the tankmen in sporting pull-overs? The advancing Germans of 1942 are sullen. Even looted Caucasian wine does not send their spirits soaring. They are haunted by the thought of retaliation. GROUP OF GERMAN CROSSES.

The German papers are full of talk about the Russian harvest—about wheat, rice and citrus fruits.-There is

one crop the German papers pass over in silence, a crop that is coming up with lightning speed—the crop of German crosses. They have sprouted beautifully all the way from Voronezh to Pyatigorsk. Corporal Rudolf Ragovitz writes to his brother: “All the way to Armavir we saw German graves. It was a sad sight.” When we drive the Germans back this sight will gladden the hearts of our men. German crosses —such is the harviest that Hitler is reaping. The Germans are fighting with their last forces. They have dispatched 22 divisions from the West to Russia. They \have stripped the Atlantic coast. They have driven all their menials to the East. Ninety vassal divisions are fighting on our territory. Without the help of his vassals Hitler would never have reached Kuban. I

The Germans have moved far beyond their bases Their troop trains have to cover thousands of miles of hostile country. Every now and again those trains go flying into the air! The guerillas have learned to lay mines. Last year they killed Germans in ones and twos; now they wipe them out wholesale.

It is easy for the German artilleryman to fire his shell —but it was no easy job to bring that shell from Breslau to Pyatigorsk. The Germans have dispersed themselves through the vast Russian spaces. It is high time we used our good Russian broom to sweep them up Last summer the Germans encircled big Red Army units. It is high time to remind them that the word “encirclement” exists in both German and Russian. Every German in Russia is encircled —by Russians. He is encircled, and must be destroyed.

Last year the Germans advanced along the whole front. After taking Smolensk they marched immediately on Kiev. They moved similtaneously on Odessa and Leningrad. After capturing Kiev they moved on Moscow. Now they are advancing only in the south. They have even been compelled to go over to the defensive at Voronezh. LAST SUMMER & NOW.

Last summer the Germans were far stronger than they are today, but even then they were anxious to shorten their front. Today they have less men to man a much longer front. The Germans are fond of looking for gaps in our defences. It is high time to show them that we are not blind —they have not a few in their own.

When things go well with them, the Germans affect modesty. When things start going wrong they, turn to lies. Last autumn they moved on Moscow. The Nazi Command knew that its forces were running low, that the offensive was petering out. Hitler tried to cheer up his soldiers by announcing: “The Red Army is destroyed.” Two month later the Germans were running for their lives from that non-exist-ent Red Army. In July of this year the Germans were passing through a “modest” phase. They were advancing rapidly, but went to great pains to describe the difficulties they were encountering in their forward drive. Today their offensive has slowed down. Soviet resistance has strengthened. And the German papers, in an attempt to raise the spirits of their public, write: “The Red Army is destroyed.”

That is a good sign It means they are nearing the end of their tether. It means that it is high time to halt them and set them on the run. We are not afraid of the truth. We know what wq have lost these past few months. We know of the bumper harvest in Kuban that now lies in ashes. We see the Maikop oil burning. We remember that the Germans have ravaged some of our most flourishing regions and turned millions of our compatriots into slaves.

It was difficult for us. after the winter victories, again to taste the bitterness of retreat. Difficult and sickening. Sorrow has reopened old wounds, and our people will tolerate no more. They burn with one desire: to pay the Germans back in full measure.

The man who said the French are always excited except when something exciting is afoot would gloat over the latest escape story to reach the 8.8. C. ■ It concerns a husband and wife and their sixteen-year-old son who have just arrived in Britain. When the family set. out from their home-town their main concern was their papers—these were not in order for crossing the demarcation line into Unoccupied France. Howdver, as Monsieur related, they took a taxi, and drove off. Some way from the line a German girl in uniform, walking along the road, hailed them and asked for a lift. At the frontier, the guards, seeing a German uniform. emerge from the taxi, did not challenge it, noi' were the occupants asked to show their papet’s. After they had crossed they saw that the German girl was, in fact, going on duty!