FIRST SNOWS GIVE WARNING

Waikato Times, Volume 131, Issue 21834, 15 September 1942, Page 2

FIRST SNOWS GIVE WARNING

The first snows have fallen in the Caucasus Mountains—the barrier that still stands in the way of the German southward advance. This snow, although it may precede the real winter by any period up to two months, is at least a warning to the German High Command of the desperate need for haste if the Nazis are to reach a favourable position before the campaigning season ends. Recognition of this warning is expressed in the increasing fury of the attack on Stalingrad. Who holds Stalingrad through the winter will have gained i a considerable advantage, for the city, if it survives as such, will be the main supply base and winter quarters within some hundreds of miles. Germany's attitude is that the reduction of Stalingrad is a “mathematical certainty” providing there is an unfailing supply of men and materials to replace those destroyed. But that theory was exploited at Moscow and elsewhere with results that must have been t disturbing to the Germans. The time factor and the seasons enter I largely into the matter, and there are certain imponderables such as the spirit of the Russian people and of the German forces themselves. Stalingrad is in a desperate positions without a doubt, but it still stands in defiance of the German fury. In Russia at least cities do not surrender. They have to be taken house by house and in the end they are of doubtful value to the conqueror because they are little better than heaps of rubble.