SUITS GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 62, 16 March 1943, Page 5

SUITS GERMANY

HOLD-UP OF ALLIES IN TUNISIA INVASION OF "'JROPE URGED (Special Correapondent—N.Z.P.A.l Reed. 6 30 p.m. London, March 14. An Allied Nations’ invasion of the Continent has been the subject of guarded speculation for weeks. It has become inevitable after Casablanca. and more recently with the early thaw ill south Russia, the German counter-attacks towards Kharkov and events in North Africa these speculations have been given ths sharp edge of urgency, both for political and military reasons. The demand for a second front, with all its implications, is still latent, for the longer the Allies’ direct intervention in Europe is delayed the better thi German plans are suited. The position at Kharkov, although serious, is not yet regarded as a cause for dismay. The Sunday Times correspondent at Moscow, commenting on the Russian front, says: “There has been no serious deterioration of the Russian position, but whereas until the middle of February everything was on the credit side, there is now a debit side. What really matters is not what the Russians have lost, but what, they have not succeeded in gaining. They have not reached the Dnieper, which would be the ideal conclusion of a winter campaign, but distances have proved perhaps over-great and time just a little over-short. The thaw came early in south Russia and the Russians advanced so rapidly that it was not always possible to restore the railway lines to the Russian gauge with sufficient speed. The great question is whether the Russians consider they

can exhaust the Germans sufficiently outside Kharkov to make it worthwhile holding it as a springboard for renewing the drive towards the Dnieper or whether, with the great enemy force involved, they consider holding such a salient too costly. Much depends on wnether the Russians are planing offensive or defensive operations in the coming month on that front. For an offensive Kharkov is an asset, for a defensive plan it is a liability.” Regarding North Africa, Mr. J. L. Garvin, in the Sunday Express, points out that the Allied results have been excellent in every way but one—they still tend to throw back the timetable of military cooperation with Russia in Europe. "At anv cost we have to smash the Nazis tactic of obstruction in North Africa within a couple of months from now, or else push our arms into Hitlerite Europe by alternative means,” adds Mr. Garvin. He •m--presses the opinion that it is likely the Germans may remain in Tunisia longer than we like or can afford in view of the compelling demands of invasion "by the early summer or before the situation in the heart of the Soviet may once more reach the pitch of a crisis. Quite possibly while it lasts it will be a most sinister ordeal, ye it may be acutely fateful to the whole war."