World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF RUSSIA: Toward the Last Battle

The great summer Battle of Russia is ending in one of Germany’s worst defeats.

Since the Red offensive began in the Kursk-Belgorod sector on July 12, the Russians have rolled forward 50 to 200 mi.

along a 700-mi. front, recaptured 95,000 sq. mi. of Russian earth (see map). They have breached two powerful defense walls.

They have cleared the Caucasus, reoccupied almost half of the Ukraine, imperiled the Crimea, reached the borders of White Russia. They have bled the Wehrmacht, destroyed the bulk of its Panzer.

These were no puny victories. Last week the Russians recaptured 5,500 towns and hamlets; last fortnight 9,300. Among them were great German bastions, whose fall dealt a fierce blow to Germany’s plans, hopes and future. Last week the Red Army:

> Captured Smolensk, the northern anchor of the last major defense line available to the Wehrmacht in Russia. Once Hitler had his headquarters in this ancient walled city, and from here the Wehrmacht rumbled into its futile attack on Moscow in the winter of 1941. To take it, the Russians had to pierce a 40-mi. belt of defenses they described as “the strongest on the Eastern front.” The fall of Smolensk turned the left wing of the German Dnieper line, marked a victory as important as that at Stalingrad.

> Captured Roslavl, described by Stalin as “a powerful strongpoint.”

> Captured Poltava, the key to the big bend of the Dnieper.

> Captured the last German ports of escape in the Caucasus.

New Battle. When these cities fell, the summer battle had virtually ended.

But there was no respite for either side, for the Red Command would not willingly let initiative slip away, would not willingly lose the momentum of a great drive.

The summer battle thus merged with the Battle for the Dnieper, now at its height.

Heavy rains came down upon the eastern battleground. The mud clutched at cannon and tank, swathed marching men’s feet with a heavy, sticky cast, and blackend the battles’ dead. But, from Velikie Luki down, nine army groups, including perhaps 27 armies, early this week pushed and plunged at the German Dnieper line — at Kiev and Melitopol, Zaporozhe and Dnepropetrovsk, Gomel and Cherkasi.

Already some Red units had crossed the river. Already Cossacks watered their horses on the lower Dnieper. Farther north, weary but exultant Red soldiers watched the gold-domed churches of Kiev, its roofs peeking through the branches of chestnut trees.

Hitler’s Perils.The battle for the Dnieper had its origins in the woods and valleys of the Belgorod-Kursk sector where, in the first fortnight of July, Hitler’s vast offensive drowned in its own blood. When this defeat was coupled with the Allied moves in the Mediterranean. Hitler knew he had to shorten his Eastern front and hoard his reserves of men and guns.

But the Russians ruined the Wehrmacht’s blueprint. They were stronger, more aggressive, better generaled than the Germans expected. As a result, the slow withdrawal became a hasty retreat.

Time and the elements are now Hitler’s allies. Moreover, the Russian soldier is weary. He is encamped at the end of long, mud-sheathed supply lines which can scarcely bear the burden of a new major campaign.

Yet the Red Command knows that a final effort might well clear Russia of the alien invader, perhaps lead to his collapse. The Red generals have learned well the lessons of past defeat and victory. They know that the Wehrmacht must not be given time to catch its second wind, to mount a counteroffensive, to build new defense lines.

The Russians are prepared to take full advantage of the Wehrmacht’s difficulties: >From Smolensk, they now threaten the fat German bulge stretching out to Leningrad. If Vitebsk falls, the Baltic states would soon be in Russian hands. >From half a dozen points on the Dnieper, they can outflank most of the German strongholds on the Dnieper line. > From Melitopol and the Caucasus they will threaten the Crimea. > From the Crimea, if & when it falls, they will again dominate the Black Sea, and once again Germany’s vassal states of Rumania and Bulgaria will be open to a direct attack.

The German Command is aware of these perils. Its aim today, according to a Swedish correspondent in Berlin, is “to establish the best possible front along which will be fought the last decisive battle. . . .”