RECAPTURE OF ODESSA

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22321, 12 April 1944, Page 2

RECAPTURE OF ODESSA

Germany’s policy of announcing news from the eastern front in advance of the Russian version has certain advantages, and some disadvantages. The Nazis made haste to tell the world that they had evacuated Odessa. Russia followed with a denial of voluntary evacuation and a claim to the capture of the city, which cannot be denied. The Germans left Odessa only because they were hunted out, and the same has applied to the whole vast retreat from Russian territory. It will be remembered that some months ago the Germans announced the evacuation of Vitebsk because, presumably, they had lost hope of holding it, but Vitebsk is still in German hands, and its capture has not been claimed by the Russians. It has not been in accordance with German interests or wishes that any part of Russia has been abandoned. The retreat was simply a matter of stern compulsion.

Nothing now can stop the Russians short of the line which the Germans are preparing along the Carpathians and through Galati to the Black Sea, so that from Poland to the Black Sea the Germans will be ejected entirely from Russian mainland soil. If the Germans can be thrown out of the Crimea also, and a drive to that end has apparently begun, the Russians will have regained their grip on the Black Sea, leaving the Germans access to it in the meantime only on the shores of Rumania and Bulgaria. Odessa is one of the greatest prizes regained by the Russians for many months. It will greatly improve the effectiveness of the Black Sea fleet and increase the peril of the German and Rumanian armies marooned in the Crimea. Aircraft carriers would be of immense value to the Russians, but the land-based air force and the navy can make an attempted evacuation of the Crimea a perilous operation, even though the shoals and channels of the Black Sea impose navigational difficulties.