The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-11

prisoners and casualties were now about 100000 men.
 The estimate of Russian losses, like @ previous Moscow report that about 100000 Germans had been captured, killed or wounded. gave no details and meant little or llo- thing from military viewpoint un- less substantiated.
 Of vital importance, however, was the problem of whether the German blitzkrieg had, or could be, started moving again.
 For 24 hours, Moscow official com muniques reported, the vast German juggernaught has been stalled, tln- able to achiev any action of conse- Quence from the Arctic to the Black Sea-the longest single fighting front Europe has ever seen.
 This picture was not contradicted in detail by Nazi propagandists, German accounts claimed that Nazi troops are still storming ahead into Russia but no specific claims were made and 1t was indicated that none are to be expected before Sunday at the earliest.
 Tn the forward momentum of the German advance has actually been lost, 1t appeared to be @ development of greatest importance The chief blitzkrieg weapon is speed and con- stant movement. If German panzers are not on the move, the war tends to revert to the static in which the defense has great traditional ad- vantages.
 Never Happened Before
 Tn none of the previous German campaigns-the invasions of Poland. Norway, the low countries and France, and the Balkans-has any substantial pause ever occurred in Nazi operations.
 The Russian offensive has now been underway for 20 days. In every other invasion, 20 days has been sufficient to enable the Ger man high command to achieve de- cisive results and make plain that German arms would win another crushing victory.
 But in 20 days fighting on the eastern front, 1t was apparent today, the Germans have only been able to push through the Russian buffer states, Poland, the Baltic area and Bessarabia, and not all the way through at that.
 Penetration of Russia proper has been effected only to a small degree in White Russia east of Minsk and at the northwestern corner of the Ukraine and the German forces only now are coming up against the principal Russian Qualifications, the so-called Stalin Line of pillboxes and bunkers which extends back deep into Russia.
 There was mild optimism in Lon- don military circles over the results Of the war thus far. The British believed that the pause in operations was due to one of three factors or possibly @ combination of the three: German exhaustion after three weeks of bitter fighting; Q planned halt for consolidation; increased Russian opposition.
 May Force StaIemate
 It was felt by the military sources that If the Russians can continue fighting on fairly even terms for a few more weeks they may force the Germans into Q stale- mate which might easily prove diS- astrous for the Wehrmacht.
 There appears to be no doubt that Germany hopes to clean up the Soviet campaign as speedily as possible and that she would like to turn west again in late summer to deliver a crushing and possibly final blow against Britain.
 A high and excellently informed source in London outlined Russia's view that the most important single aid Britain can give now is the cre- alton of a new fighting front against Germany @ diversion on the scale large enough to force the Ger mans to transfer troops and atten- ton to the west.
 These sources said that Germany appeared to have switched about 80 per cent of the Luftwaffe's fighting strength to the east against Russia, leaving only 20 per cent thinly stret- ched over western Europe and in North Africa.