Evening star., 1943-01-02
Sees Russian Road
To Berlin Painful
Army Officer Says kozis
Nay Suffer Horrors Like
Those of NopoIeon's Retreat

| AiAho cSl iCo VI utduy Ilds
covered roads into Germany from the
west and south. But so far the greatest
fighting front has been on the east
Here is, indeed. the broadest road to
Berlin, covering the whole vast p2in
from the icy Baltic to the Black Sea
Riviera.
From 1889 to 1941 Russia held almost
up 20 the borders of Germany itself
following their joint occupation of un-
happy Poland. 1t is evident now that
Hitler felt this was too much of threat
to his domination of Europe and his
eXtravagant pretentions in world affairs.
A treacherous attack on his ally in June
of 194l was the most extraordinary de-
velopment of the war until the entry of
Japan, and seems to have been Der
Fuehrers most serious mistake. While
not alerted for this attack, Russia was
very we'll prepared for a long war. The
Russian leaders do the thinking for
their people in world affairs, and they
have few illusions about the essential
/ StiAAolliiSSS VI ildJiOilo AS SOOll DIS tIlty
! joined in 1928 in the Geneva discussions
! about world disarmament they were
! brutaliy frank about pointing out this
| fact. They even prophesied that it would
lead to a greater world war than the last
! one. We have it on Our hands right now.
However serious his error Hitler in
italy was successful in driving the
Due.
| proaches to Germany, until they
/ held in the defenses of Moscow itself.
! His 1912 campaign in Russia extended
| his control in the south up to the Volga
at Stalinerad. How long he can hold
| such an advanced line, of course, will
determine the feasibility of any attack
| on Germany from the east.
! In the country which he has occupied
! the natural defense lines lie along the
! great rivers. the Dvina and Vistula in
| the north, the Don, the Dneiper and the
| Dneister in the south. The lakes and
| forested sWampS of Northern and Gen.
| tral Russia are also natural features of
| defense. This country is lowland. They
say that from little hill near Moscow
-
| to the British Isles before you find as
| great height. Across these plains have
| come tough Aslatics from the earliest
| days of European history. AS Germany
Weakens, she is sure to feel along this
eastern front the relentless pressure of
| the Russian armies. They will take back
their own at the very least, and secure
what they take for a long time to come.
These armies may follow many diff
ferent roads-out of Leningrad along the
Baltic Sea. out of Moscow through Smol-
ensk, and in South Russia through road
and water functions at kharkov, Kiev
and Odessa. They may fly American and
British planes, and drive tanks and
trucks from our western arsenals But
it is certain that in leadership person.
! mel and spirit they will be purely armies
Of the Union of Socialist Soviet Repub-
lies. Allied armies may operate on their
fianks, but not in Soviet territory The
Russian wants to do the fighting on his
| own soil and in his own way.
He fights for a variety of reasons-to
pay back blow for blow, to avenge his cap
tive or slaughtered family. to take back
his land. But, just as we fight for a
free democracy, the U. S. S. r. fights
| primarily for the regime. Their great
revolution did something big for the
Russian peoples in giving them a COM
mon ideal. White Russian. Ukranians.
| Tartars and CoSsaCks have shown in
| earlier wars that they are tough soldiers
But no soldier is as tough as the steel
OF shells and bombs and tanks Many
Russian soldiers have died in the face
| of German superiority in weapons that
| their way of life might endure. 1t takes
! devotion to an idea that is stronger than
the fear of death to explain the desper-
ate defense Of Sevastapol and the more
extraordinary stand at Stalingrad In
| spite of immense losses in men and ma
teriel this devotion will serve to hold all
Russians together until they can carry
the war into enemy country.
Back of the German lines in Russia
are millions of Russians with the same
courage and ideas as their sons and
brothers on the fighting front Where
conditions make it possible, they are
| organized into bands and fight as parti-
sans with hangman's moose waiting for
them if they ever are caught. When this
Is not possible, all they can do is bear
| stoically cold, hunger and slave labor for
their conquerors. But any advance which
| promised them relief would fan their
smoldering resistance into flame. Ma
| poleon learned the horrors of such war
fare in his retreat from Moscow a
| century ago.
Much the same situation exists in
Poland. The German armies cannot fall
back out of Russia proper into a home
land devoted to their cause They must
fall back into the desolate wastes of
Eastern Poland. This part of the
country has been organized by Hitler and
his Gestapo into sort of slave state for
what remains OF the Polish people and
for Jewish survivors deported from all
over Europe. From such a state cannot
be expected the unified resistance which
Is found in all parts of the U. S. S. r. But
the starvation. disease and desperation
which must be found there is sure to
make 1t hard road for retreating
German armies.
1t Is long road from Moscow to Ber-
lin. The Germans found it was a bloody
and painful one in their advance, and the
horrors on that front are not finished
1t may prove on vaster scale repeti-
tion of the 30 Years War This battle of
ideologies wiped out two-thirds of the
population of the parts Of Germany in
which it was fought 300 years ago.