Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-09-11
Germans Being Forced
From Farther Positions
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
The situation on the Russian front is
changing. The principal point of in
terest is now the line on which the Ger
mans propose to make their new de-
fensive stand.
The Germans are getting out of the
Donets basin as rapidly as they can.
There are some indications that the
Russians are pressing them so hard that
heavy German losses of prisoners and
'materiel may result. The Germans are
falling back westward toward Poltava
and toward the crossing of the Dnieper
at Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe.
Meanwhile, it is clear that the Ger
mans have been making a series of pow
erful counterattacks in the area north
and northwest of Poltava These attacks
appear to have checked the Russian ad-
vance in this region for a sufficient
length of time to enable the Germans
to organize their evacuation of the
Donets area. Now the Russian report
OF the recapture of zenkov, and the re-
sumption Of the Russian advance south
west of Kharkov, suggests that the
German counterdrives have spent their
strength, and that at least some of the
Donets forces are still in peril of en-
circlement.
Farther north, the Russians have
taken the railway junction at Bakmach.
BY so doing they have cut the main
double-track railway from Gomel to
Kremenchug, and have thus broken the
principal lateral line of communications
between the German armies of the CEN
ter and those of the south A further
withdrawal behind the Dnieper from
river seems probable. For the first time
since the Germans took it, it may be
said that the great railway center of
Kiev is within the possible scope of
Russian operations.
For the moment, however, the ques-
ton which Is of chief strategic impor-
lance is whether the Germans can save
the Crimea. A retirement behind the
lower course of the Dnieper would leave
the Crimea cut off altogether. In order
to protect the only line of railway which
enters that peninsula, the Germans
must bring the Russians to halt some
where east of that line, and they must
hold the Dnieper bridges at Zaporozhe,
even If they cannot hold Dnepropetrovsk.
The railway line from Zaporozhe to
Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov would
seem to be the backbone of the defen-
sive position which they must maintain.
But this position is already endangered,
both by the Russian drive westward
from Stalino, and also by the Russian
advance along the shore of the Sea of
Azov, which already has taken Mariupol,
about so miles east of Berdyansk. NO
doubt the Germans are counting heavily
on the coming of the autumn rains to
slow down the Russian offensive. The
fact there is as yet no suggestion of
German withdrawal from the Tamensk
Peninusla implies that the Germans
are not prepared to give Up the Crimea
just yet, at any rate. But even If the
rains check the Russians now, 1t is hard
to see how the Crimea can be held
against the Russian winter offensive,
which certainly will come when the
ground freezes.
1t seems likely that the Russian win
ter offensive may also have a northern
wing to press hard against the German
left flank and compel its retirement to
Lake Peipus or the Dvina. AS readers
OF these articles may recall, 1t has for
some time been apparent that the Ger
mans could not remain in the vicinity
Of Leningrad and Lake linen if their
southern and central fronts had to be
drawn back.
Indeed, part Of the advantage they
hope to obtain from shorter front and
shorter lines of communication would
be dissipated, for there would be no real
gain, except the keeping up of their COM
munications with Finland, should they
attempt to hold their present positions
from Leningrad to Vitebsk The more
they withdraw in the south, the more
likely it is that they will be compelled
to pivot their northern flank backward
with Vitebsk as the pivot, giving up their
positions near Leningrad and perhaps
the whole of Estonia. That probably
means giving up Finland as we'll. If so,
1t may mean giving up Northern Norway
In the end. But the Germans must give
up some of their distant holdings in order
to protect their vital central areas.
The outworks of the European fortress
have been driven in. Its walls have been
preached. 1t remains for it's defenders
to contrive interior positions from which
they can defend the approaches to its
citadel. They can no longer afford to
waste men and weapons trying to hold
any positions which are not vital for
this purpose. Wherever they do so, they
are giving us an advantage of which
on every hand we now have means to
seize on and exploit
Copyright. 1913. New York Tribune Incl