Evening star., 1942-07-04
Russians Faith Dealt
Staggering Blow by
British Setbacks
Soviet People Cannot
Understand Why English
Hesitate to Make Stund
BY LELAND STOWE,
War Correspondent of The Star and
rhfroco Da{lv Nauy


War Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
MOSCOW, July 4.-Sevastopol's s
defenders have withstood for 81
days what is certainly the greatest
concentration of explosives since
Verdun-and what is quite pos
sibly the most terrific deluge Of
destruction ever poured on one
small area in the worlds history.
Sevastopol is a razed and burned
out city, but these Russians, al
though outnumbered 10 or 20 to
!, still fight and still die fighting
where they stand. Human valor
has seldom done more.
The British defeats in North
Africa have had profound i'm
preston on the Russians.
Unless they measure its effect
on the Russian people the British
leaders cannot comprehend the i'm
perative need for actions which
will retrieve Britain's military pres
tige swiftly and decisively-at
whatever cost-With complete dis
1GSdlu III 4iullldil 1lNSo.
These are strong words but
Russias reaction to the successive
abandonmentS of Tobruk, Sidi Bar
rani and Matruh cannot be por-
trayed in diluted phrases or with
false optimism These people,
fighting virtually alone, have en-
dured extreme punishment for
more than one year. Their dead
and wounded are counted in the
millions-several millions.
Cannot Understand Losses.
Only by realizing the full meaning
Of their losses can any one outside
Russia hope to get some conception
of the Russian reaction to the events
in Egypt. The Russian people and
their military leaders cannot under
stand many things and are deeply
anxious because they cannot find
adequate answers. They do not
understand such things as this.
The Russians cannot understand
why Tobruk. which had already
withstood siege of many months,
should not have been so strongly
fortified that no conceivable German
force could take it except after long
and costly assaults. They cannot
understand how Tobruk could pos
sibly fall to two or three German
armored divisions within 48 hours,
or how a division and one-half of
defenders could surrender in such
brief period.
The Russians do not understand
how or why, after nearly three years
of war, there should be much less
than 25O,000 British and Empire
forces in Egypt, which is the key
stone to the entire Near East.
The Russians do not understand
why the forces of Egypt should still
be weakened as a result of British
Empire forces being rushed to Ma
laya from Burma last winter. After
oil, they reason, London has had at
least six months in which to replace
every tank and every air squadron
sent to the Far East, and who could
fail to see that not the slightest risk
Of losing Egypt should be incurred?
Wonder About Retreats.
Most of all, the Russian people do
not understand why Britain's land
forces have hesitated to make a
stand, cost what it may-why British
soldiers have not yet shown they
know how to die the way the Rus
slams, Greeks, Poles and Serbs know
how to die. The Russians know full
we'll that only through the will to
die flames the will to win This is
one more reason why British de-
feats in Egypt come as a great de-
ception to the Soviet people. Even
the humblest, most uneducated Rus
sian laborer or peasant talks of these
things today and shakes his head
eloonily and uncomprendingly.
It is highly important that these
Russian reactions be understood
abroad and In high places as well as
low. What about second front
this year, front on which the
Russians greatest hopes are based?
Now they wonder whether Tobruk
and Matruh are examples of the
kind of fighting to be expected from
British soldiers when the opening
up of a second front is attempted
as it must be attempted. Now they
wonder whether British officers and
soldiers will prove capable of dying
by several hundreds of thousands tc
make that front a decisive, unsmaSh-
able reality.
Faith Badly Shaken.
Now the Russians faith is badly
shaken and it would be most dan
gerous kind of folly to make believe
that this is not so. 1t is so-ano
quite naturally So No people or
earth could pay the price of thi:
fighting will-to-die and wiu-to-wi
that the Russians have paid, anc
react otherwise.
1t boils down to the fact that fol
the Anglo-American Allies there
cannot be another Tobruk or an
other Matruh in this war. OnI
the spirit of Sevastopol and onl,
the spirit of those Britishers whit
charged with the light brigade a
Belaklava, some 80 years ago, cal
retrieve what has already been los
p Egypt. This war will only b
won by many more hundreds O
thousands of dead.
tcopyrieht, 1912 Chicago Daily News, Inc.