Evening star., 1941-07-19
By GEORGE WELLER,
Foreign CORRESPONDENT of The Star
Chicago Daily News.

Foreign CORRESPONDENT of The Star anc
Chicago Daily News.
SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE. July
19-The first clue whereby the
Russian and German communicates
can be effectively weighed ano
Adolf Hitler's progress toward Mos
COW charted is contained in par
ticulars of the Nazi general plan
which have just reached South
western Europe in rough but inter
pretable form.
As a traveller cannot judge how
far Hitler has progressed unless he
knows where he is going and when
he is due there, perusal of the
daily communiques only serves to
bewilder the German as we'll as
other European peoples ignorant OF
the master plan.
How much time does England still
have to take advantage of the Rus
sian campaign? Putting aside the
hardness and insuffciency which
have handicapped her in the past
can she exploit the Soviet diversion
by some more substantial action
than Syria and Iraq, for example
against Italy?
These questions. unanswerable
through the fragmentary bulletins
of the daily fighting. are all con-
tanned in the imperious problem
Is the Reichswehr maintaining sue
cessfully, as it claims, the schedule
of the blitzkrieg?
Nazis Appear on Schedule.
Information reaching this writer
from Berlin furnishes a yardstick
for measuring the Nazis' advance by
the schedule they have set for
themselves. AS the situation stands
now, Hitler, although taking severe
losses. appears to be adhering to
schedule, with japanese intervention
from the Soviet's Pacific flank as a
possible accelerating factor. Here
is the general plan:
The Ukrainian wheat fields and
the Caucasian oil wells have been
the principal Nazi aim of the 194l
plans since the first 100000 troops
to instruct the Rumanian Army
five teachers to one pupil-lodged
themselves in the eastern Balkans
The arrival of British troops in
Greece, plus Benito Mussolinis fail
ure in Albania, compelled Hitler to
take up that front before turning
to Russia, where the handspring of
the campaign was originally
planned.
From it's victories in Greece and
Yugoslavia, the Reichswehr and
Luftwaffe hastened northward into
Rumania and Poland, joining the
divisions brought there from the
western front, and the Russian at
tack was again tentatively sched-
uled for the beginning of the last
week in May.
What held it up was not the
Cretan campaign relatively un-
necessary, in the Nazi view-but two
facts:
The first was that the Ukranian
wheat, more precious than gold to
the clamoring peoples under the
Nazi yoke. was unusually late in
coming into maturity and Hitler
wished at all costs not to interfere
with Soviet care of crops destined
for German stomachs.
The other was that the Soviets,
already reading the handwriting on
the wall, were doing everything
within their power to delay Hitlers
pressing the button by increasing
shipments of supplies into Germany
Russians Fought for Time.
Such we're the chief reasons that
the opening date of the campaign
was pushed ahead to the first day
of summer.
According to the Germans, the
Russians fought as desperately fol-
time as though they were already
warning. While trying to entangle
Germany inextricably in the Balkan
junket by frowning on Bulgaria'l
complaisance and applauding Yugo.
slav resistance, the Soviets ZAP
peased" desperately in the hopt
that the campaign between the
Adriatic and the Aegean would last
| long enough so that Hitler's plar
would conflict with the Russian au-
tumn rains.
German import officials say they
never had had such prompt anc
steady fulfillment of Soviet promise.
as during the last two months, wher
Hitler was massing his forces or
the Red frontier. Orders long de.
layed suddenly appeared and ship.
ments were in impeccable condition
Especially it was noteworthy thai
20 trainloads of American supplies
bought by Japanese middlemen il
the United States ostensibly fol
Japan, which had been held up il
Vladivostok after being shipped
across the Pacific, were suddenly
| released.
American-made goods, despite tht
transcendent needs of the Soviet
war machine, crossed over tn,
Trans-Siberian Railway in May IL
record time for Soviet freigh
handling.
The explanation for the silence o.
the German press amidst Russia
diplomatic campaign against tn,
| Nazis was that the Germans did no
wish to arouse the Russian people
as long as the government was full
filling its export obligations at toI
speed.
Hitler has estimated. It is nov