South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 23 May 1942

The Pause

Opening the debate on the war in the House of Commons this week Mr. Attlee described the present position as “something of a pause before the full summer campaign breaks upon us.”

This is a fair enough assessment, but it is as well that we should realise some of the tremendous possibilities with which the pause is fraught.

Most of all the future course of the war depends at this moment upon Russia. Hitler is better aware of this than any of us. That is why he seeks to mount one of the greatest attacks of all time in an effort to smash the Soviet armies this summer. The winter campaigning, so different from what he had planned, threw his time-table into arrear.

Now after the briefest of pauses to cover the transition from winter’s snows to the firmer going after the thaw the Red Army is on the move again, having made ready with incredible swiftness to forestall the Germans. The Kerch peninsula struggle, a reverse for the Russians is not a serious one, particularly in the light of Marshal Timoshenko’s push, which significantly edges nearer and nearer to the gateway to the Crimea.

Meanwhile Hitler’s reserves are being steadily eaten into. Dispositions of assault troops are being thrown out of gear as fresh forces are needed to stem the Russian advance. So far the push has been slowed down only. Until it has been stopped the German armies cannot get on with the attack which means so much to their country. Every day they are kept on the defensive means one day less for the campaign of annihilation which they are so desperately anxious to conclude before snow comes to the Steppes again.

Once again Hitler is finding how disconcerting an adversary he faces on the Eastern front. But it is certain that, gambler though he is, Hitler is not unprepared for set-backs. It is the German way to provide as far as possible against all conceivable contingencies. The Nazis will move heaven and earth to turn the tide of battle, either by direct counter or by a diversionary stroke on another sector of the front.

In the meantime Stalin has scored a valuable point by getting in the first serious blow of the summer campaign. Probably this has to a large extent been made possible by the supplies provided by America and ourselves, and it is critically important that this support should continue. If Russia can prevent further serious encroachment on her territory this year the end of the European phase of the war should be within sight. If, on the other hand, Germany manages to get the decision she so desperately seeks this summer our doubts about an invasion attempt against ourselves will quickly be resolved. But indications are that the end of Russian toughness and resilience has by no means yet been reached, and the plains of western Russia may well be the grave of the mighty army of the Reich.

The issue remains clouded. Japanese intervention in Siberia would constitute an awkward complication, but would also invite dreaded retaliation from the bombing fleets of the United Nations, thus provided with coveted bases. The Indian and Pacific Ocean theatres may yet provide surprises, for though the Japanese fleet has retired to lick its wounds after the battle of the Coral Sea there is evidence that another attempt to enter Australian waters will be made probably in greater force. These possibilities are the light and shadow of a picture in the foreground of which looms the Russian effort. Never can so much have depended on a single campaign as will hinge on the impending battles before Moscow, Leningrad, and Rostov.