The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-03-11
interpreting
The War
By K!RKE L. SIMPSON

Associated Press War ANALYST
A general German retreat hs.
hind the Bug River line or into
Rumania on the Black Sea flanI,
Of the eastern front may be ind.
Gated by surrender OF Uman, tho
fall of which was first announces
by Berlin, and promptly confirm
ed in Stain victory bulletin from
Moscow.
Whether abandoned in limo.
shortening maneuver to meet tna
growing danger to the whole Maj
Dnieper salient as Berlin indicates
or taken by storm as Moscow saws
the loss of Uman marks a signifi'
cant deterio- alton in the German
defensive position in the south, Tho
railhead town, some 40 miles souf,.
west of Zvenigorodka, covered an.
proaches to three vitality imnor.
tant rail crossing of the central
Bug River.
Its capture implies thai tbo
whole Nazi deplovment east OF tbe
Bug from Vinnitsa near its north.
western rise to Nikolaev at ifs
mouth may be On the move to the
rear to escape multiple Red army
entrapment drives.
Russian reports tell of Nazi ii.
visions pulled out of the Dniepar
Bend salient farther east 10 bn4
tress the defense of the TarnopoI.
Prekurov Zhm erinka front 2oo
miles to the northwest, where Rms.
sian spearheads stand within less
than so miles of the Rumanian
frontier above the Cernauti gate.
way to central Rumania. A DIES.
perate German fight to retain tbe
PreSkurov salient below thu Rus.
sian advance that cut the Warsaw.
Odessa rail trunk between that
junction and Tarnopol apparently
has failed. Both critical functions
and Zhmerinka seemed doomed
Red troops are already in the
streets of Ta1nopol. Its loss as
well as that Of Preskurov and
Zhmerinka would give the Rus
slams solid grip on a 100 mile
strength of the Warsaw-Odessa
railroad. That would make its re-
opening by the Nazis all but i'm
possible. 1t would render the stu
alton of all Nazi troops to the
south and east OF the Bug River
or even the Dniester precarious.
The obvious Nazi move would be
retreat into Rumania. surrend-
ering last foothclds in the south.
western Ukraine, even including
the important port of Odessa. With
another Russian deep break
through drive in progress south
east of the Umar sector to threat.
en- Nikolaev directly, all Bug cross
ings from Zhmerinka to the sea
are in danger, and all Dniester
crossings behind it to the west also
in peril.
The Nazi retreat from the Dnie-
per salient, if it is in progress,
bids fair to be the biggest and
most dangerous detachment opera
ton yet faced by the German staff
in Russia. To pull back an army
without disaster under surging Rus
sian simultaneous pressure from
the north, northeast and east with
on adequate railroads available
and across a terrain Moscow de-
scribed as sea of mud and flood
due to early thaws must mean
morale sapping losses in both men
and heavy equipment.
! Moscow reports say the cutting
of the Warsaw-Odessa rail supply
line had already reduced the Ger
mans in the Dnieper salient to
dropping food, fuel and ammuni-
ton for thaw-str anded tanks and
motorized equipment from trans
port planes which cannot find land
ings. Yet the thaws on which the
Nazi staff counted heavily to stall
the Russian offensives have failed
even to delay Red advances at
critical points.
It could prove the decisive mo-
ment of the war if victory-flushed
Soviet troops within sight OF drlv-
ing the last invader from Russian
soil succeed in closing any one OF
several potential traps on any sub
stantial part Of the German ar
mics seeking eSc3na