Evening star., 1943-06-22
Anniversary Finds
Nuzis Held in Russia
Mojor Eliot Reviews War
Against Soviets Begun
Two Years Ago Today
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
This day is date forever memorable
in the history of the world. 1t was pre-
cisely two years ago. June 20. 194l, that
the German armies launched their at
tack against Russia.
1t was not so easy to see then, as 1t is
now in retrospect, that this was the last
desperate gamble of conqueror already
almost defeated. Hitler's Germany in
June, l94l, had behind it an almost un-
broken record of victory and men had
not yet perceived the full significance
of the one major defeat which Hitler had
suffered IN the Battle of Britain.
During the two years that have fol-
lowed that treacherous and violent at
tack, the Russian people, who, by that
act of the common enemy became our
allies, have borne the major burden of
the war against Germany. Their de-
fense of their native soil has been of
epic proportions in its heroism and its
grandeur.
We have learned what even the gen.
eral staffs of the world did not then
know, that the Russian Army and the
Russian Air Force are efficient and
capably commanded fighting machines.
We owe to them, in particular, the de-
struction of the evil legend of German
invincibility, the paralyzing effects of
which have not yet been wholly dissi-
pated, even though the legend itself no
longer exists. We learned that blitz-
krieg Is not irresistible, that the tank is
not the master of the battlefield in the
presence of wellhandled and we'll pro-
tected artillery, that the famous ar
the French had not known how to stop,
can be blunted and even destroyed by
armored colnterattack against their
flanks.
We learned those things. and hope was
rekindled in many breast where 1t had
well-nigh been extinguished
AS the year 194l drew to its close, we
saw the German armies hurled back
from the gates of Moscow; we saw Res
tov retaken, the first time that any ma
jor objective once in German hands had
been recaptured by its rightful pos
SCISSOR.
When the campaign of 1912 began 1t
was already clear that the edge of the
German sword had been blunted. The
terrible Russian winter through which
the German armies had just passed had
taken toll which could never be re-
placed. Once more the Germans ad-
vanced. They pressed deeply into the
Caucasus; they penetrated the bend of
the Don; they retook Rostov; they bat
tered at the gates Of Stalingrad. But
they were never able to conquer the
strategetic key positions without which
all else was vain-the crossings Of the
Upper Don in the vicinity Of Voronech.
At the end of their enormously lengthy
and wearisome line of communications,
they were never able to produce suf-
flcient scale of offensive effort to over.
come the heroic rsistance OF the de-
tenders Of Stalingrad.
In this campaign the Russians showed
themselves masters Of patient strategy
which was able to bide It's time, to hold
back its reserves, to wait for the mo-
'ment of maximum enemy exhaustion
and then to strike with irresistible force.
When the Russian blows fell, they fell in
stunning succession, and all the gains
for which SO much German blood had
been spent that year vanished like
rnisf hcf0ro fho y,oory,irr {xy
across the Don, the Russian armies iso-
lated and destroyed the German siege
army before Stalingrad; they forced a
hasty and costly German withdrawal in
the Caucasus; they retook Rostov,
Kharkov and Kursk, and they came
within hairs breadth Of encircling and
destroying something like one-fourth of
the total electives Of the Wehrmacht in
the pocket between the Donetz River and
the Sea of Azov.
1t was only by last-minute counter
attack, employing the major part of
their strategic reserves, that the Ger.
mans escaped this last threatened dis
aster. And now? Now two thirds of
the German Army and half the German
Air Force are held fast along the Rus
sian front. Only by putting in a great
part Of their remaining forces can the
Germans hope to accomplish anything
at all in Russia: and If they do that,
they are left practically defenseless
against the growing weight of Anglo
American power which the Russian re-
sistance has given the British and our
selves time to equip. train and concen.
trate for battle.
The German high command hesitates
before the painful, indeed the desperate
decisions which confront it-and we'll it
may. Whatever those decisions may be,
in them there is no hope of victory for
Germany. The choice is only as to
which course may stave off defeat a few
days longer. The German people have
no occasion to remember with gratitude
or with pride the fateful day of June %,
1941, when leader who deemed himself
the reincarnation of Napoleon set out to
lead them in Napoleons footsteps on the
long and bloody road to Moscow.
tcopyrght 1943. N. Y. Tribune, Inc)