Evening star., 1944-07-28
Wursuw-und Beyond

lS cdSIcIu lTOlt presents an
extraordinary spectacle. Today 1t is
precisely Ave weeks since the Rus
slams launched their summer offen-
sive with an intensive assault on the
German bastion OF Vitebsk. The
surprisingly rapid storming of that
heavily fortified stronghold was
merely the first of series of ham
mer blows which quickly smashed
the entire German defense line in
White Russia, and through that wide
gap the Red tide poured westward in
conjunction with offensives by other
Russian armies all along the eastern
front over nearly 1000 miles from
the Gulf of Finland to the Carpa-
THAN Mountains.
Since then the Russian advance
has been uninterrupted, especially
in the center where it has averaged
between Is and 20 miles per day
virtually the speed of peacetime
maneuvers. Allowing everything for
Russian ability and German disor-
ganization. this can only mean lack
of any co-ordinated German resist
ance except at few key points
where suicide garrisons fought de-
laying actions. No attempt has been
made to stand on the only two
natural defense lines. the Bug and
WiSla or Vistula. The crossing of
the latter river yesterday on broad
front southeast of Warsaw, SEEM
ingly unopposed by anything more
than scattered rearguards, partially
outflanks the Polish capital at dis
tance of less than 40 miles. Simul-
taneously, the Germans evacuate
WarsaW's chief bulwark to the
northeast, Bialystok, while the east
ern bastion, Brest-Litovsk, is iso-
lated and doomed. The fall of
Warsaw, probably without a fight
through German evacuation, is ap-
parently certain within the next few
days. And beyond Warsaw are only
wide plains to the River Oder in the
Silesian Province of Germany itself.
What does all this mean? Three
explanations suggest themselves as
reasonable. The first of these is
military. 1t is that the main body
of the German armies have retired
to East Prussia and Silesia, with
their splendid networks of road and
rail communications. in order to
attempt the nutcracker counter
offensive planned long before the
First World War by the German
general staff if Russian armies
should stick their heads into the
deceptively easy corridor of Western
Poland. Dr. Goebbels may have
limited at this when he told the Ger
man people in his radio pep talk to
them on Wednesday that the mill
tary situation on the eastern front
would soon change markedly to Ger
many's advantage.
The second possibility is that the
German armies in the east are so
badly mauled by the Russians and
so riddled with disaffection in the
high command that no counter
offensive is possible and the Ger
mans are simply trading space for
time in the desperate hope that the
Russians may have to slow down
soon because they will have out
run their lines of supply. These must,
indeed, be strained and stretched
pretty thin It is hard to visualize
the Red armies invading Germany
without pause beyond Warsaw and
the reduction of German flank posi-
tions in East Prussia and the Car
pathians.
The third possibility is political.
1t is that the Nazi leaders. in their
hatred of the Western Allies, prefer
to hold tight in Normandy and Italy
while risking Russian invasion of
Germany with all its catastrophe
consequences to Germany and the
German people. That would indeed
be the Wagnerian Twilight of the
Gods" which Hitler, Goebbels and
other Nazi spokesmen have long
threatened if defeat should ever
stare them in the face.