Evening star., 1941-12-29
Give Us Materials
And We'll Beat Nazis,
Say Soviet Officers
Russians Believed Able
To Make Good on Boost;
Supply Picture Brighter
BY A. T. STEELE,
Foreign Correspondent OF The Star and
Chicaro Daily News.

Chcaro Daily News.
MOSCOW, Dec. 29-With the
Nazi tide turned at Moscow, the
Russians are rather more Sangulne
about the prospects OF coping with
their enormous problem OF supply
during the long campaign ahead.
However. the decisive Importance of
American and British material help
has in no wise altered.
At Moscow the Red Army per-
formed against an enemy better
equipped with engines Of war. But
German resistance is stiffening. The
Germans have suffered a grleyous
blow, but the knockout cannot be
expected until the Russians have
built up their material strength to
something like equality with that
Of the Nazis.
What the Moscow battle has
shown is that the Russians possess
the man power leadership, resource
fulness and courage to deal that
ultimate knockout if provided the
instruments with which to do it.
Even in their present successes the
Russians fully realize that theirs
is still long, hard road ahead and
that materials more than ever are
the decisive factor.
All They Want Are the Tools.
During my recent trip to the front
I heard this sentiment expressed
repeatedly by Red Army officers:
Give us material help and we'll
beat the Germans. was the gist
Of what they all said.
The bright side of the supply
picture is this: BY barring the
German hordes from Moscow and
Leningrad the Russians have pro-
longed the utilization of a vast
amount of industrial machinery for
the production of munitions and
war engines. Thousands of carloads
of really vital equipment have been
removed from both cities but a
great deal of machinery still remains
and this for some time has been
wholly harnessed to war production.
BY saving it the Russians retain
a highly important source Of finished
war materials to help bridge the
gap while transplanted factories are
coming into production and Anglo
American supplies are reaching re-
spectacle proportions.
Most industries remaining in Mos
COW are light industries. On Satur-
day in a visit to the biggest plant
in the Soviet Union. saw machin-
cry which formerly made motor
parts turning out trench mortars,
automatic rifles and ammunition
A considerable part of the equip
ment of this huge plant has been
transferred to the Urals and beyond
where it will resume production.
Workers remaining in Moscow
have readiu5ted themselves to their
new work and new working condi-
tionS. Little Red pennants standing
in front Of some workers along the
assembly line marked those who
we're exceeding their war quotas by
200 and 300 per cent !
Chief Engineer Vassily Takhtarov
told me that his plant had been .
bombed several times but that none |
Of the vital workshops had been |
damaged, One night the factory |
was showered with a Thousand in
cendiaries which were quickly ex-
tinquished.
With the help Of factories trans
planted eastward and factories still
remaining in Moscow and Lenin-
grad, munitions, providing the raw
material supply can be continued,
will be produced in adequate volume.
The nations industry has drawn
and continues to draw heavily on its
accumulated reserves, but these can
not last indefinitely and must be
replenished from domestic and for
eign sources.
Z. s. and British Supplies Now Felt.
Though the stream of American
and British supplies has been steadily
growing in quantity, its effect is only
beginning to be felt. British and
American supplies made some con-
tribution to Russian successes at
Moscow, but were by no means ma
terially decisive. That was virtually
I'LL du-IuoSldll CllUIU CdlllCu OuG
with Russian manpower and Russian
materials. The few British tanks
and British and American airplanes
available were only tiny fraction
of the total forces employed.
One of the biggest results of the
Russian successes at Rostov, Moscow
and Leningrad is the removal of an
Immediate threat to several vital
lines of supply. The destruction of
the German armies at Tichvin
(Tikvin> and Volhov reduced the
danger to railway arteries from the
ports of Archaneel and Murnansk
besides insuring the safety of the
corridor into Leningrad. Several
routes to Moscow have been re-
opened and in the south the free
flow OF supplies into Russia via Iran
are again reassured.
The outcome of RuSSia's effort to
solve her supply problem will be
easier to Judge with the approach of
spring when warmer weather begins
to thsv out Hitler's forces. That
may be the decisive period Of the