Evening star., 1942-12-30
Russians ADVANCING
On 250-MiIe Front
Hitler Seen Threatened
With Loss of Cuucosion
And StoIinerod Armies
BIZ Mai. Georqe Fielding Eliot.

Tu0 St0IHHS1OO NIHISS
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
The development of the Russian often
sive on both sides of the Don is now
beginning to make somewhat clearer
strategical pattern on the map than was
the case in its earlier stages. East of
the Don the general axis of direction
of the Russian advance appears to be
southwestward along the Stalingrad-
Rostov railway. Here the Russians are
approaching the German stronghold of
Kotelnikovsky and have by-passed this
point on both sides of the railway East
of the railway Russian advance elements
must now be in contact with the Ger
mans in the vicinity of Elista. This lat
ter German force Is probably a flank
guard for the German offensive directed
toward the Grozny oil fields which has
for sometime been halted in the vicinity
of Nalchik There are some suggestions
of German withdrawal from Nalchik,
and the Russian threat to the t1anking
position at Elisha may be one of the
reasons for this.
West OF the Don, the Russians appear
to be pushing south on broad front
and to have completely surrounded, save
for single line of railway, the Ger
man garrison at Millerovo. Here again
the eastern flank of the Russian advance
appears to be moving faster, its armored
advance guards having already reached
the main east and west railroad from
Stalingrad to the Donetz basin.
AS for the German Army in the Stalin-
grad region itself, this force has no
rail connection which is now open and
appears to be receiving its supplies partly
by air and partly by road through
corridor about SO miles wide between
sive This corridor is gradually closing
as the Russians extend and consolidate
their gains AS the weather grows
worse, 1t becomes less and less adequate
for the purpose of supplying the trapped
Germans and more and more subject
to Russian raids as the superior Rus
sian winter mobility takes effect.
The Russian offensive now takes on
the character of broad general advance
astride the Don River on a front of
about $50 miles and it Is obvious that
1t involves the use of very large reserve
forces which have been held back until
the precise moment had arrived for their
nnnr}nvrnonf ho
IN mobile artillery is even greater than
1t was last winter, but the excellence
and strength of their tank equipment
comes as something of a surprise and it
Is clear that the Russians have been
boarding this material all year and train
ing troops in its use in order to make
the most effective possible employment
OF 1t at a strategic moment. 1t is, in
fact, almost impossible to give sufficient
praise to the sound strategical judgment
and moral courage displayed by the
Russian high command in accepting
the tremendous risks of withdrawal from
SO much territory and of holding on at
Stallngrad with the bare minimum of
force necessary for the purpose until
the time had come for their great coun-
ter stroke, which is now in progress.
On the basis of this record it can
be stated categorically that as a supreme
commander, that great military genius,
Adolph Hitler about whose military ca
pacities we were told so much when he
assumed personal command of the Ger
man armed forces last December, has
been completely outgeneraled by his
Russian opponents and is now face to
face with situation which must be
painful to him indeed.
With each day that passes the danger
of complete loss Of his Stalingrad and
Caucasian armies increases. With each
day that passes, such capable generals
as he may have who still dare to offer
him unpalatable advice must be urging
upon him the necessity for beginning a
general withdrawal OF all the German
troops beyond the Don. But to do this
would be an acknowledgement of de-
feat; to do this would be to admit to
the world that Shaposhnikov, Zhukov
and Timoshenko are greater generals
than Hitler. 1t is an Acknowledgement
therefore, which Hitler seems unable to
bring himself to make, but with each
day that he delays it, he is risking having
to make the even more damning ad-
mission of his military incapacity which
would result, If the jaws of the Russian
trap snap shut on the crossings of the
lower Don leaving 80 odd Axis divisions
to face the choice between death or
surrender.
Copyright, 1e43, by New York Tribune, 1nc)