NOTES ON THE WAR

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8833, 14 October 1942, Page 2

NOTES ON THE WAR

SIGNS ON ALL FRONTS MUCH BETTER OUTLOOK VALUE OF STALINGRAD BASE For the moment—and thete have been so many disappointments in the past that it would be idle to look too far ahead'

the outlook is better on all fronts. The Russians are holding the Germans at Stalingrad

despite the heaviest and most desperate attacks in all the con- - tinued onslaught of the past

30-odd days. The centre of pres-

sure may possibly shift to the Caucasus, where the Germans 1 are reported to be going all out in their drive towards the Grozny oilfields. The Japanese

are withdrawing in New Guinea

over the ranges. The other fronts are generally quiet. The opinion that Stalingrad will hold out till the winter is said to toe hardening, according to recent news from London, and Hitler is reported to have warned his troops there that they will have to take Stalingrad or freeze on the steppes this winter. It is quite possible that the idea of taking Stalingrad itself will be given up by the Germans on account of the cost and that they will try to establish a defensive line between the Don and the Volga south of the city, perhaps along the Don-Volga Canal. Such a line might prove as difficult to force by the Russians as the lines along the Volkhov River to Lake Ladoga, east of Leningrad, or the positions at Rzhev and Voronezh. Behind the Don-Volga line the Germans might concentrate ' most of their forces in the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian on a desperate last-minute drive towards Grozny and Baku. Winter on Steppes The value, of Stalingrad to the enemy would be chiefly as a base for winter quarters. Its capture toy the Germans would similarly deprive the Russians of much-needed shelter from the blizzards of the steppes, for there is no large city within 200 miles of Stalingrad. The nearest are „ Saratov to the north on the Volga and Astrakhan to the south-east, where the Volga flows into the Caspian, -both about 200 miles away. There is not the heavy . snowfall on the treeless steppes round Stalingrad that there is further north in wooded central Russia, but the cold is intense and would be felt even more severely than in the north by the 'troops exposed to it. In the Russian Civil War both sides suffered terribly from exposure on the steppes in the winter. That the Germans will strike south towards the Caucasus is all the more probable because even if they took Stalingrad, they would still have to face Marshal Timoshenko’s army barring the way north. In any event the city must now be largely in ruins.

Raid on Sark The little commando raid on the Island of Sark, the smallest of the Channel Isles, is interesting, as Sark is in the southern group between the larger islands of Guernsey and Jersey and further away from the English coast than the other island of Alderney. Geographically, the Channel Isles are a part of France, and the people themselves are more French than English. The official language is French and the country people speak a dialect of Norman French.

The islands were united with the English Crown by the Norman Con- p quest and have remained British ever since. Though frequently invaded by the French, notably in 1461 and 1781, they were never subjugated f This was entirely due to Britain’s command of the sea. With the challenge of air power their position was changed, and they were evacuated by Britain in the summer of 1940, following the collapse of France. They are so close to France—in the case of Alderney and Jersey only about 12 miles from the mainland—that they could' be covered, as no doubt they are now, by long-range artillery. The total area of the group of islands is 75 square miles and the population is just under 100,000. They are, of course, famous for their breeds of dairy cattle, each island having its particular strain. The islands are not part of the British Isles. They have their own Government and are not liable to British taxation. Alderney has 3. Parliament and both Alderney and Sark have Courts of Justice subordinate to Guernsey. The Crown is represented by a military lieutenantgovernor and a bailiff, also appointed by the Crown, presides over the Parliament.

Crisis In Denmark Denmark more than any other country under the Nazi “New Order” has escaped oppression of the worst m kind. It was occupied so quickly by the Germans in April, 1940, that resistance was impossible, and none, officially, was offered. The King and Government of Denmark acquiesced, with reluctance, in the Nazi occupation, but the Germans have never been popular in the country. Popular feeling has been voiced by the King, and has at last resulted in a crisis, fully described in the news.

The Danish legion in Russia resembles some of the other “foreign legions” recruited voluntarily in Scandinavian countries and in Spain. It was never large, never did much, and was and is highly unpopular with the Danish community, as the news indicates. Though there have been no open clashes with the Gex - - mans on a large scale, the country has been virtually ruined by the invaders through the loss of its foreign markets. Spies in Egypt The reference in recent news to the leakage of information to the enemy about the desert raid in Cyrenaica