So much secrecy has been maintained by Soviet Russia about the strength of its orbed forces that the only persons qualified to say whether or not the Nazis can full their promise to the German people to crush Russia within eight weeks or so, are the Soviet leaders themselves. The rest of the world, however, knows something of the strength of the Russian forces and, while those forces are undoubtedly not as' efficient as those of the Nazis, there is no doubt that Hitler's task this time will not be as easy as his previous ventures and. that loss of German life will be heavy. Since it came to power the Soviet regime has built up a formidable army and @ powerful air force that is regarded as one of the strongest in the world in the numbers of first line craft. Just before the outbreak of the present war the strength of the Russian army was estimated in. London ito be about 2,000,000, consisting of 86 divisions of infantry, 21 divisions of cavalry and two corps of mechanized troops with about 6,000 tanks. Conseripts join the army at the age of 19 and serve usually for two years, the average number of men being called up annually being about 1,200000. Russian tanks are of various patterns, ranging from heavy vehicles of about 50 tons to mediums of 27, tons, Christies of 12 tons with a speed of 30 miles "an hour, Vickers of six tons and Cardens manned by two men. The total of trained men that Russia can mobilize is about 10,000,000 but such an enormous force could never' be handled satisfactorily in a country where horses are scarce, the railways weak in plant, organization and carrying power and the roads suited only to nineteenth century traffic. Tt is quite possible that Russia today has an army of over 4,000,000 men mobilized to meet the German threat and that it is highly mechanized, possessing possibly about 15,000 tanks, most of which have been constructed since 1939. In air power the Russians can match the Nazis in numbers and, according to the Russian Soviet press in 1939, the Russian air force strength was being increased to over 13,000 aeroplanes, In 1987 its known strength was about 6,000 first line aircraft and since then thousands more have been built. At sea the Russians can match the Germans in submarine strength but in surface ships they are woefully weak, In the present battle that is raging along the Soviet frontier the Germans. probably, are outnumbered by the Russians, but there is little doubt that in quality of equipment, which includes tanks, the Germans have a decided advantage and that with their superior weapons they should' make headway. The cost, however, should prove to be a heavy one and. in the meantime, Great Britain and her Allies will be able to train more and more soldiers, build and receive thousands of aeroplanes, tanks and other weapons' of war finally to equal if not surpass a German war machine that will have to remain spreadeagled all over the European continent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.