Evening star., 1943-01-29
New Northern Front?

neutral European sources that
Petsamo, Finland's port on the Arctic
Ocean, has been captured by the Rus
SLAMS, striking from the Arctic port
OF Murmansk, less than 100 miles
to the eastward. These rumors NAV
be premature, but many circum-
stances indicate that those remote
northern regions may soon be the
scene OF intense military activity.
The relief of Leningrad from it's
IL months siege by the Germans
radically changed the strategic pic
ture in Europe's northland. Once
more in direct contact with the rest
of Russia, Leningrad should soon be-
come a major base of offensive ac-
tlon in various directions, including
Finland. With their relatively small
army, the Films must concentrate
most of their forces to stem a pos
sible Russian thrust over the Kare-
llan peninsula into the heart Of their
country. They certainly would be
unable to detach much strength to
re-enforce their garrisons in the re-
mote north. The Firms have never
had many troops there. Most of the
fighting between Petsamo and Muir
mansk has been by Russians and
Germans. 1t is the Germans who
must defend the narrow Petsamo
corridor, averaging less than so
miles wide, which separates Russia
from the tip Of Norway, and it is the
German submarine and airplane
bases in northern Norway that would
be the logical objective Of a Russian
offensive from Murmansk on a large
scale.
Should such an offensive now be
getting under way, it would almost
certainly be co-ordinated with an
Anglo-American attack on northern
Norway from its Atlantic side. Such
an operation, though admittedly
difficult, would have the advantage
of campaign with limited objectives
and OF equally limited proportions.
Northern Norway is a narrow strip of
rugged coast backed by a range of
lofty mountains on the other side of
which lies, Sweden AT many points.
the Norwegian coast is so deeply in
dented by fjords that they almost
reach to the Swedish border. The
result Is that there are neither rail-
ways nor highroads running along
the coast from Southern Norway. The
only rail and road links are with
Sweden. Thus the Germans have to
re-enforce and supply their garrisons
IN northern Norway by sea or by
air. To be sure, Sweden has reluc-
family permitted limited numbers of
German soldiers to pass over those
links, without arms. But the Swedish
government has stated clearly that
this permission would be revoked If
Norway should become an active
field of operations And Sweden OBJ
viously expects that this may happen
soon. The Germans would thereby
be faced with the alternative either
of supplying their assailed garrisons
by sea and air or Of violating
Sweden's neutrality and bringing
that country into the war against
them. That would be a grave risk.
Sweden is formidably armed, with a
well-equipped army of 100000, an
excellent air force, and a relatively
powerful navy which, together with
the Russian fleet, might we'll obtain
mastery of the Baltic Sea. That
would sever German communications
with Finland and would also expose
all Germany's Baltic coast to at
tack, Faced with such calamitous
possibilities, Germany might prefer
to take chances of losing northern
Norway as a lesser evil.
But the liberation of northern
Norway would mean that the Arctic
route to MurmanSk and Archangel
would be freed from the menace of
German submarines, aircraft and
surface raiders which have wrought
such havoc on Allied convoys to
those ports. Supplies for Russia
could thenceforth flow unhindered.
That would be an enormous gain,
we'll worth large sacrifices for its at