Evening star., 1942-03-12
Signs Point
To Allied
Offensive
North Cope and
Murmonsk Area
Mentioned
BY FRED yANDERSCHMIDT,
Associated Press stan Writer.

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indicates the imminence Of highly
important operations centering
about the area between the desolats
North Cape at the top Of Norway
and the cruel l,000-foot granite
cliffs Of the Russian Murriansk
coast.
Major air and naval operations
Salready are under way. involving
German capital ships, British tor
pedo planes undoubtedly operating
from an aircraft carrier, other Brit
ish warships and United Nations
convoys.s
These cannot be explained en-
tirely by the routine movement OF
American and British supplies to
Archangel. More than one compe-
tent analyst Is considering whether
the western Allied powers will pound
a wedge Of well-equipped power into
the top Of Europe when the mid
night sun shines this summer.
Free Europe, q review Of interna-
tional affairs published In London.
said today an Allied spring offensive
in the West should have q good
chance Of success, for the forces now
concentrated in the British Isles
presumably are stronger than those
the Germans have disposed from
/ Kirkens, Norway, to Hendaye,
France.
Norway Proposed.
This commentary declared that
both military and political reasons
commended Norway as a spot where
the Allies could strike with over
whelming forces. It added that
control of Upper Scandinavia would
give the United Nations a con-
venient link with Russia through
Finland and would put them in posi-
ton to strike directly into the heart
Of Germany.
On offensive at the top Of Europe
might well be the extra contribu-
ton to Russia's cause which the
Soviet Union gives every evidence
Of expecting. There is plenty to
win: A successful push could wipe
Finland from the war, open and
protect the whole Allied Russian
supply line via the excellent port
of Murmansk and re-establish the
Allies in Norway. where they could
organize and supply increasing re-
sistance by the population.
A common United States British.
Russian fighting front could be
thrown quickly across the thin tip
Of Finland and this front In time
might provide just the impetus
which the Russians need to turn the
whole German northern flank and
collapse 1t on the Baltic states and
East Prussia itself.
There are 1900 miles OF sea from
the present United States bases In
Northern Ireland TO the North Cape,
but 1t Is barely 80 miles across the
northeastern extremity OF Norway
to Russian territory, and only so
miles farther east to Murmansk.
Significant Developments
Eight hundred miles straight
south Of Murmansk. reachable al
most directly by railway. Is the
Staraya Russa front where the Rus
slams have pushed back closer to
Germany than anywhere else. STAR
ava Russa Is only 13o miles from
Latvia and then 1t Is just 400 miles
to East Prussia.
Throughout the long winter the
world has almost forgotten about
the Murmansk front and the Ger
mans and Firms there have huddled
somewhere about the city and on
the Bybachi Peninsula to the north
west, quiescent but close enough, Il
appears, to make 1t necessary for
Allied supplies to proceed on east
to Archangel. The northern end Of
the Russian counteroffensive has,
however, freed captured sections of
the railway line running south to
Leningrad and beyond.
Now, however, there are these sig
niflcant military and political de-
velopments to show that something
big Is stirring:
The Germans have moved at least
four big ships, the superbattleship
Tirpitz, the pocket battleship Ad-
miral Scheer and the heavy cruisers
Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen, to
the Norwegian coast. They are
based at Trondheim and they are
there TO keep the Allies out Of the
North.
Attack on the Tirpitz.
British torpedo planes beat at the
Tirpitz Monday somewhere north Of
Trondheim and, the Germans say,
British planes were In the air as
far north as Bear Island, which in
dicates the presence of at least ons
British aircraft carrier in these
northern waters. The British COM
munique telling Of the air attack
on the Trpitz also spoke signih-
cantly of "our surface forces" and
"our convoy" the latter q supply
convoy which arrived subsequently
in Russian waters.
The Germans also say the British
have made the Shetland Islands,
northeast Of the Orkneys. into an
important air base against Norway.
None of this naval-air action can
be disassociated from Washington's
announcement this week of a com
mander, United States naval forces
operating In European waters" to
which command Admiral Harold r.
Stark has been assigned.
Meanwhile, Russian troops on the
Ladoga front above Leningrad have