Evening star., 1942-07-14
Contest Of Struteqies

S'tSSt VI SltOlC4tSS
The titanic death grapple on the
eastern front has become so complex
and so fluid that it is almost impos-
sible to make up-to- the minute sur
veys of the tactical situation. The
most that can be said is that the big
Axis offensive on the south central
sector continues to roll rapidly on
ward down the Don valley and toward
the bend of the Volga while strong
new German offensive is devel-
oping on the north-central sector,
launched from Rzhev and Viasma,
the tongue of fortified territory
pointing at Moscow, which the Ger
the static winter months. Still other
Axis offenSiveS doubtless will be
launched in other sectors Of the long
eastern front when the German high
command thinks the time is ripe.
There can no longer be a reasonable
doubt that this is the main Axis cam
paign for the current year, aimed at
knocking Russia out of the war as a
major opponent, and that if neces-
sary the bulk of Germany's strategic
reserves will be thrown into this
major effort.
The rapidly shifting tactical oper-
ations, individually so confusing,
hn hof TOR
their entirety if we understand the
basic strategical concepts which lie
behind. This campaign boils down
to contest of strategies. When
Germany attacked Russia a year ago,
its high command used the now IA
miliar blitz tactics which had been
so successful from Poland to France
and the Balkans. In Russia, how
ever, the German blitz encountered
new factor-that of almost illimit-
able space. The Russians could
afford to trade space for time, and
they used that time to marshal their
vast reserves of both manpower and
materiel in counterstrategy that of
defense in depth.
Accordingly, German .armored
spearheads driving recklessly for
ward without regard to their lines of
communication found themselves
dealing, not with relatively thin for
tilted lines which could be pierced
and enveloped, but with elastic de-
fense zones of great depth which
closed around the spearheads, cut
them off, and devoured them. The
German blitz strategy failed, and
only their skillfully improviSed
hedgehog defense" of a series of
key points averted disaster during
the severe winter and permitted
them to keep most of their initial
gains of territory.
This spring, the German high COM
mand had to deal with a Russia
stronger than ever in trained man
power while the Axis human reserves
had been gravely depleted On the
other hand, Russia had used up the
huge stocks of equipment it had
amassed during many years, and had
been unable to replace them as fast
as the Axis did during the winter
months. The German high COM
mand could afford to expend more
equipment than the Russians, but
had to conserve manpoWer and at
the same time cope with the Russian
defenses in depth. The upshot seems
to be new German system of STRAIT
egy expressed in tactical operations
such as are now displayed in the Don
valley. This system consists of a
series of close meshed combinations
of tanks, planes, mobile artillery of
fairly heavy caliber, and strong in
fantry forces. That intricate combi-
nation aims to smash through even
the deepest Russian defense zones
through overwhelming frepower
which first blasts everything in it's
path and then holds those gains with
massed infantry pouring promptly
into the wide gaps that have been
made.
Apparently, the combination has
succeeded in the Don valley, since
the Russian front there has been al
ready pierced over a 300-mile front
in places to depth of 200 miles. The
results are not as spectacular in
terms of prisoners and booty as some
Of the break throughs and encircle-
ments of last summer. But, from a
strategic viewpoint, they may yield
equally decisive results.