The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-04-05
Interpreting
The War
BY KIRKE L. SIMPSON
Associated Press War An2Ivs4

of Nazi battle casualties on a sin.
gle sector of the long eastern front
finds more credence among AneJo.
American military observers than
most previous reports of that kind
from either Berlin or Moscow al
though Allied leadership apparent.
ly still lacks much detailed mill.
tary information from Russia
The official Russian claim was
that 100000 Axis troops died Or
were captured. This ACCOUNTING
covered the % days in March that
witnessed Red army break,
through on a wide front to tho
eastern flank of the Carpa thians
splitting the German defense line
in two.
It dealt only with what was
called 1.-The First Ukrajnian
Front" That is the sector manned
by the First Ukrainian army hand
picked in Moscow to spearhead he
drive from the Dnieper to the Car
pathians.
The sector reaches from the
headWaters of the Dniester north.
ward to Kowel, where another Ger.
man garrison is trapped, accord.
ing to Berlin's admission. And if
is on this front rather than south.
ward, where the Second Ukrainian
army has leaped the Prut into Ru.
mania proper, that the gravest
threat to Germany itself from III.
east is fast developing.
1t was Marshal Zhukoff's First
Ukrainian Army which carved out
the Kiev Bulge west of the cen.
trail Dnieper. Out of it has bios.
somed the disastrous Nazi retreat
on the whole line from the Pripet
marshes to the Black Sea. In the
% days period the first army
cleared substantially 10000 square
miles of the foe. 1t has driven
him off Russian soil entirely on
its front and is now converging
on the LWow bastion in southeast.
ern Poland that guards the road
to tn western Polish plains
through the gap between the Dnies.
ter and Polish Bug Rivers.
| The Moscow version identities
more than IS Nazi or satellite di.
visions or other groups annihi.
lated or badly mauled in the %
day period. Only remnants Of
them are left, caught in Russian
traps like the Skala, kettle Or
surrounded at Tarnopol, at Kowel
and presumably at Brody on the
main road to Lwow.
Early destruction or capture Of
all three isolated groups is ind.
Gated, to boost the First Army bag
many thousands over the $4,000
enemy dead said to have been left
behind in the % day retreat and
the $4,000 troops taken prisoner.
Whether those are absolute figures
or are merely symbolic statistics
: intended to show the size and i'm.
portance of the First Army vic.
tories "a frequent Morrow prac-
tice in announcing enemy person
mel losses) is anybody's guess.
There can be no doubt, however,
that the Russian advance north Of
!. the Carpathians to bring Lwow in
, to danger is the gravest develop
ment of the war in the east for
Hitler and his generals. Nor can
it be questioned that it was in
that sector they concentrated all
available reserves and futilely at
tempted again and again to halt
the Russian break-through to the
Carpathians by costly counter at
acks, realizing the critical nature
of the Russian threat.
The opportunity existed on the
First Ukrainian Front for deVasat-
ing blows to be dealt at German
and satellite manpoWer. There IS
no QouDC Whatever OIL Tue RUSeloA
victories. The fate of all German
forces in the Skala "k/e' IS
sealed and Lwow a>ars certain
| ly doomed. - 1all must shatter
the old Nazi 'eastwalI' on the Pol
ish Bug, probably expose Warsa"
to First Army thanking drive
from the south.
| The figures on war booty taken
do not appear greatly exaggerated.
in consideration of the nature OF
the German retreat and the dltfl'
cuties of pulling back heavy equip
ment. Time and again in announc-
ing evacuation" of center after
center, Berlin has declared all NIL
itary installations 'destroyed 10
keep them out of Russian handS,
There may be some measure Oh
"blow-up" in the Moscow figures
on Nazi casualties. There is no ez'
aggeration whatever in the lndlca'
ton they give of the supreme Stra'
tegic Importance of the Russian