Evening star., 1943-02-05
Expects Russions
To Drive on kerch
MiIitory Writer Believes
Germans in Tomensk
Foce Troeic Defeat
Ey Mai. George Fielding Eliot.

Ey Mai. George Fielding Eliot.
The fall of the railway junction of
Kuschevskaya has severed the last rail
link between the German forces in the
Caucasus and the German armies at
| Rostov and in South Russia generally.
Rostov itself is now threatened on all
sides, except to the west. The rail line
by way of Taganrog still links it with
Germany; the main line through
Likhaya junction also appears to be open
for traffic from the west, since the Ger
| mans still hold fast along the Donetz
River.
These circumstances lend significance
to the statement made by the German
radio that the Germans now are with
drawing to two bridgeheads in the
Caucasus: One covering the immediate
approaches to Rostov and to the lower
estuary of the Don, the other on the
Tamensk Peninsula.
AS to the first proposed German bridge
head. it will Immediately be threatened
from three directions:
Cd From Orlovka, by the Russian
Army pressing slowly forward along the
south bank of the Don itself-but this
army has made little progress these past
three weeks, which suggests that it has
run into heavy resistance;
CD From the direction Of Kalganit-
skaya, on the Rostov-Salsk Railway,
which joins the main Rostov-Baku line
at Bataisk. This latter town is still in
German hands at last report;
90 From Kuschevskaya on the main
line, where the last branch leading to
the German-occupied area comes in.
The pressure which the Russians can
bring to bear on these fronts is very
great; particularly so, since the liqui-
dation of the Stalingrad army will open
the Stalingrad-Salsk line to through
traffic. The prospects of defending
Rostov against this growing Russian
drive do not. therefore, appear very
bright.
But those prospects are certainly
brighter than the prospects of the Ger
man troops now being relentlessly herded
westward into the narrowing triangle
of the Tamensk Peninsula. For these
forces there is now only one route of
escape, as there is only one of supply and
reinforcement-the precarious passage Of
the Strait of Kerch. Here already the
ships and naval aviation of the Russian
Black Sea fleet are reported in action.
This is another one Of those "almosts'
which have so haunted the Germans of
late. They almost took Moscow last
winter; they almost reached the shore
of the Caspian; they almost took Lenin-
grad. Time and again their news sources
have told us: This operation can be
considered as virtually completed" They
almost deprived the Black Sea feet of
its last harbor-but not quite; and here
1t is again to plague them.
There Is some talk of a German
"Dunkirk"-a fight by sea from No
vorossisk. It is possible that the Ger
mans may try to use that port II they
have shipping available. The port itself
is threatened by the Russian forces of
Gen. Tulienev, and any concentration of
German troops and material in the
comparatively CONSTRUCTED area of the
port would make magnificent target
for Russian aviation or for the 12-tnch
guns of the one battleship which the
Black Sea feet possesses.
But it would seem more likely that the
Germans may have prepared defenses
stretching across the Tamensk Peninsula
from the Sea OF Azov to the Black Sea,
and that they are hoping to be able to
retire behind these lines and there hold
on during the winter. Whether these
lines will be sited sufficiently far to the
eastward to include the port of Novoros-
sisk Is uncertain.
The difficulty here is not only with the
uncertainty of the supply lines across the
Strait of Kerch: it is also with the
Russian ability to land troops behind
the lines, or even to land them in the
Crimea and attack Kerch itself. They
did this successfully last winter, and may
repeat.
AS for supply across the Sea OF Azov
the Ice is probably not strong enough
to bear heavy transport. though some-
thing might be done with light sledges.
The desperate German hope would be
to hold on until spring, and then to use
light craft on the Sea of Azov to supply
their Tamensk force by water If they
continue to hold the Kerch Strait, they
could keep the Russian feet from coming
in to stop this traffic.
The Russians, therefore, may have
the job Of cutting of and overwhelming
this German force in the Tamensk Pen
insula before spring thaws the ice in
the Sea OF Azov. If they can do this,
the way will be open for a new offensive
to recapture the Crimea.
We may, therefore, expect to see
considerable renewal of activity by air,
sea and land on both sides of the Strait
OF Kerch; and on It's ice-locked surface,
the adjacent seas, and the bleak penin-
sulas which reach out toward it on
either hand, one of the bloodiest trag-
edies OF this war or any war may we'll
be enacted before spring comes again
to Russia.
(copyrisht, la43, New York Tribune 1nc)
Wants "Court" Of Representatives"
To Control Reconstruction"
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