GERMAN ADMISSION

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22244, 13 January 1944, Page 3

GERMAN ADMISSION

ARMY IN UTMOST DANGER LARGE-SCALE WITHDRAWALS LONDON, Jan. 12 A Berlin spokesman is quoted by the Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Mail as saying: “General Vatutin’s northern army is plunging deeper and deeper into Poland. We do not know what is going on in some places. Our counter-attacks do not appear to have thrown much sand in tne wheels of the Russian war machine. The German Army is in a situation of the utmost danger. Our losses have reached a very high figure. The number of prisoners taken on each side is muen lower than the number killed. Tne Germans on the southern sector oi the front can expect to be withdrawn right back to the Bug river line.” Large-scale German withdrawals were foreshadowed also by the German military commentator Dietmar last night in the gloomiest broadcast he has yet made. “The volume and power which the Russians are hurling into their attacks is rising steadily,” he said. “It drowns the opponent, especially when his numerical strength is markedly inferior. This need not prevent the German defence from proving successful, but grave and most painful divisions will have to be taken in which geographical considerations will be of but secondary importance. Above all, the German armies must fight for time, because they have to consider the situation on other fronts as well.” Dietmar told the German people that the High Command fully realised the seriousness of the situation. He said the Russians were well led and armed and full of the will to fight. There was also the threat of an Anglo-American attack on Europe from the west. The High Command could not suffer any major surprise from the west, but it was prepared lor hard fighting and did not underrate the situation. He called on the German people to face the situation with the uncompromising attitude shown by their enemies. 500,000 Germans Menaced General Vatutin’s spearheads are only about a dozen miles from the Odessa-Warsaw railway, and, should the Red Army seize it, 500,000 German troops in the Dnieoer bend, weary after 20 days pf tremendous fighting, will find themselves at the mercy of the big Russian armies prepared to fall on them from all directions, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. He adds that the Russian front has reached a point a little over 300 miles from the Ploesti (Rumania) oilfields, which is much nearer than any Allied air base.