World War: Special Announcement

When they, heard the blare of trumpets one day last week German civilians turned up their radios. This was the signal for a Sondermeldung, an especially important announcement about fighting somewhere. Perhaps the British in Africa had been defeated already. . . .

The announcement was made. Merely the capture of another Russian city. A place called Rostov.

The place called Rostov was, according to the announcer’s voice, a very important one. It controlled the mouth of the great River Don. It lay athwart the oil pipeline from the Caucasus. It was a key point in the best railway line between the Caucasus and the capital. And, most important, it would be the linchpin of the imminent German attack on the Caucasus itself.

On the Russian side there was some doubt about the imminence of the attack on the Caucasus. It seemed more reasonable to guess that the Germans would first drive straight across to the Volga, perhaps at Stalingrad, thereby isolating the Caucasus and protecting the German flank for its drive south. If such was the program, it was not likely that the Caucasus would suffer attack for some time.

But if & when the Germans do turn south, they may have an easier time getting at the oil than is generally supposed. The mountain barrier of the Caucasus is no barrier to oil. The important oil fields are north (Maikop and Grozny) and east (Baku) of the mountains, can be reached over good terrain by good communications lines. How soon Adolf Hitler reaches oil fields, and how soon he gets oil out of them, depend on the Russians and the British, who well know the importance of Middle Eastern oil to Germany’s existence.