Smolensk which the Germans bombastically claimed as having fallen into their hands Some weeks ago has at long last bee abandoned by the Russians. On Wednesday the Soviet Information Bureau announced, in an official communique issued in Moscow, that the Red Army had withdrawn from the city a day or so previously, thus completely to have taken this city some time ago. It exposing the falseness of the Nazi clat
Claim, they alleged that the Red Armi be remembered that, when they made Es] been smashed, and that the road to Moscow was wide open. It was just another of those paper victories which Goebbels can win even if his colleagues entrusted with much sterner "duties are not so successful The Germans have lied so consistently throughout their campaign against the Russians that the conclusion to be drawn now is that if they ever again tell the truth it will be by accident.
The fall of Smolensk at this juncture probably does not represent so important a German success as it would have done at the time they originally claimed it, for the Soviet authorities announce that the Red Army is continuing to fight in the vicinity of the city, where it is to be assumed that during all these weeks additional defences have been Constructed, and it consequently does not appear that the road to Moscow is yet open. More anxiety is justly felt over the situation further south in the Ukraine. The Germans claim to have reached the Black Sea, apparently having worked round Odessa and reached the coast between that port and Nikolaiev, but there is nothing at present td indicate "whether they have done so in strength. Military experts are of the opinion ihat as a result of nearly eight weeks fighting the Soviet-German line extends from somewhere in the vicinity of Leningrad west of Lake Ilmen to Vyazma, somewhat east of Smolensk. thence to Briansk, to Gomel, Kiev and Odessa, In all cases the localities are only approximate and are quoted merely to give some idea of the penetration of the Germans into Russia.
There is much to be said for the belief that the German push into southern Ukraine is for the purpose of attracting Russian reinforcements there and so weaken the resistance to their real offensive against Moscow, for despite all the German claims, that it is not territory but slaughter of the Red Armies they are after, they are sadly in need of some major success to justify the hideous sacrifice of their own people which the stubborn resistance of the Russians has rendered necessary. Thus while it may be that Odessa will sooner or later fall to the Nazis it must not be forgotten that Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev are the Germans' real objectives. and that minor successes elsewhere will not compensate for failure to reduce those cities in a. short space of time. In the north the Russians appear to have left a force in Estonia for the purpose of holding out there and threatening the German left flank, while at the same time rendering support for the defence of' Hangoe on the other shore of the Gulf of Finland, which would be in a dangerous position if Tallinn were to fall.
On balance, then, the claim seems to be justified that while there has been some deterioration in southern Ukraine the fight continues without marked advantage to either gide, and that some days will have to pass before the full result of the third German offensive can be fully estimated. This is certain, The Germans in this onslaught have made up to the present less progress than in the two preceding it, and the claim that the German war machine. has been slowed down has all the necessary evidence to support it. Whether it will ever regain its initial momentum is doubted for the Russians have been able to complete their mobilization, which was very incomplete when the i vasion first started. Short of a collapse of the Russian front.—and there is nothing at present to suggest the likelihood of any such thing—the chances are that the Germans will find themselves bogged down in western Russia when winter comes. Be that as it may, Russian resistance has deprived Hitler of this year's harvest, which he would have greatly liked, and forced him to wait another year before he can reap any profits from his Russian venture, if even then,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.