Evening star., 1942-02-20
Hitler Facing Defeat
In AZ, Say Russians,
Citing Increased Aid
U. S., Britoin and Soviet
Stronger in Reserves ond
Resources, Army Asserts
By the Associated Press.

MOSCOW, Feb. 20.-Red Star de-
clared today that the fighting coali-
ton of the United States, Britain
and Soviet Russia is stronger than
Germany in resources and reserves,
and predicted the defeat of Adolf
Hitler's spring campaign and the
crushing of his armies this year.
Economic resources will mean
the final decision" said the journal
of the Red Army. Soviet Russia,
Britain and the United States are
producing % times as much gas
oline as Germany together with her
vassals and occupied lands"
The United States turns out three
times as much steel as Germany,
Red Star said. 1t declared that in
manpower reserves the United
States, Britain and Russia were far
ahead.
The help we are receiving from
OUR Allies is growing continuously"
Red Star said, land no doubt
simultaneously the military efforts
OF our Allies will grow"
Points to Hitler's Losses.
The Red Army organ said that in
his efforts for quick victory over
the Soviet Union Hitler lost 100000
men in the first five months of the
war. Since then the rate of loss has
been even greater, the newspaper
asserted.
Germany cannot replace her lost
manpoWer: the main mass of the
regular German fighting force al
ready has been destroyed or in
capacitated, Red Star said.
1t added that Germany will be
weaker in manpower this spring
than she was last summer"
Red Star raised question
whether Hitler's talk of a great
spring offensive is not intended
primarily to raise the spirits of his
troops and gloss over the bad state
of his present campaign.
Tn newspaper said it seemed odd
that military secret such as plans
for a spring offensive, should be SO
widely publicized.
1,500 Killed in Three Days.
Dispatches from the fighting
front said 1,500 Germans had died
in three days of counterattackS in
a single sector of the southern
front, where the Nazis were trying
to check Soviet wedge being
driven into the DonetS Basin.
sThese dispatches said warmer
weather. with rain instead OF snow,
already was being felt on the far
southern front. .
On the northwestern front the
Red Army was said to have won
back IL more villages.
On the still-frozen battle1elds far
TO the north the Russians reported
wiping out a group of Spanish vol
unteers serving as ski troops.
The Russian government said its
winter offensive was rolling on and
that counterattacks against the
Red Army in some sectors had been
repelled with heavy losses to the
Germans"
In fierce fighting on the north
ern wing of the front, between Mos
cow and Leningrad, Soviet troops
were reported officially to have cap
tured a strongly fortified position
identified only as a." wiping out
the German garrison of more than
400 men and capturing a large
quantity of materiel.
Counterattacks Repelled.
In another sector of the front
the Russians said their artillery had
beaten back three Nazi counterat-
tacks in the past week and had de-
stroyed "5 enemy blockhouses, 4
defense works and so other fortified
positions" German losses in futile
assaults in this region were esti-
mated at 400 officers and men.
On the southern wing Of the
front the Russians credited their
artillery with destroying a German
railway train and dispensing two
companies of troops.
Soviet guerrillas, operating in the
Kursk region some 125 miles north
of Kharkov, Donets Basin indus
trial center, were said to have am
bushed a German transport column
and captured 3 field guns and 27
carts loaded with supplies.
A Tass dispatch broadcast by the
Moscow radio said Soviet artillery
had destroyed two heavily loaded
trains-one of gasoline tank cars
and the other bearing war materials
as they approached a German
occupied railway station on the
southern front.