ber 11, 1942 — LAE PEOPLE Page Five r By EUGENE KRIEGER his Is Stalingrad — __Its Defense Lines Run Through the Heart of Russia yok than two months have passed since the battles began in this bomb-searred, fire covered, but still living organism of a city. The Germans have tried ovisions, and on its schools, to thrust a dagger into its very heart, but the Russian cit reed the enemy to lie in trenches, cellars and shelters. Realizing that Stalingrad could not be taken alive, the Germans rai s¢ people bought flowers. They hurled €xplosives on its parks and boul aces where the Stalingrad housewives had procured their hospitals and homes. } The Nazis carefully thought out and executed this air bom- }tdment with typical German precision—first one block, then nother, proceeding to their new objective only when they saw #at not one wall remained standing of the previous target. Vasonry was reduced to smither- os, and only then did the Ger- ms venture to launch an offen- ‘e. The city’s ruins replied with lets, shells and hand grenades d the Germans again dug in and fire to Stalingrad. The city burned for many days i nights. The gigantic conflag- aon could be seen more than 50 les away. A sharp Volga breeze ‘ead the flames from house to use. Again the Nazis went into #m the ashes, black, scarred but ve and fighting. Once more the rmans dug in and sought shelter deep trenches. = (ew they are talking of Verdun. Wes, the spirit of Verdun lives the heart of every Stalingrad de- ider. The defense has no great oth, and in some places Jess than @) yards separates the front line mm the Volga. ~ £ dundreds of Junkers and as iny tanks have for two months in hammering away at this nar- Ww strip. But the depth of the isSian defense is the Russian feht and fortitude. A fhe soldiers defendine Stalinsrad ire their glory with the boat- §n, ferry operators, and captains d sailors of the ships which today sss the biood-stained Volga. : #Chey share their glory with the @rkers repairing tanks and guns the ruined factories, and take sir place in the firing line when sre are not enough people to man 2se repaired tanks. Not yards, f power count pth of the Soviet defense. Phe war finds littie space Hingrad. In a deserted street I w the heavy cover of a manhole ted and a pale, thin girl emerging mi it. She lives there under- sund with her mother. She sught that things were quieter d had ventured out for some iter. | Dther Stalingrad citizens live in gouts and caves but are reluctant leave the city, always waiting * the Germans to be repelled. { saw an old man crossing one of alingrad’s squares. A German ell exploded here and when the n0ke and debris were cleared ray IT still saw this cld man walk- = with his stick in hand. “You must be made of iron,’ I id him. ‘Yes, that’s right, nothing can kill € for I was killed once. The Ger- ans killed my son, a Red Army an, Tight here in Stalingrad.” “And where are you fighting?” ‘Iam a factory watchman.” He continued on his way to the ctory which stood with its walls idled by gaping shell holes. He dod at its gates with a rifle in his md. He is not afraid of Shells. > one here is afraid of shells, for e two months of defense have en two months of continuous elling. Se P= Stalingrad factories now form “part of the front line. 2€ workers never leave them. Af one factory, the director, fero of Socialist Labor Gonor, at : critical moment mobilized all } attack, but again the city rose | his workers, including the old men, and they worked 24 hours under incessant bombing. Many of them were wounded and the factory suffered losses, just like any unit at the front. After the 24 hours of hard work, they sent to the firing line 200 repaired artillery guns. The workers them- selves brought them into position. There were not enough gun crews so the workers manned their own guns. Then the Germans were able to appreciate how deep are Stalin- grad’s defenses. The hundreds of German panzers cannot break through to the Volga. Women, children and old men built barricades amid the burning build- ings. They soaked themselves in water, but they continued to work. Anyone who has gone through the air bombardment of Aug. 23 will not be frightened by anything. The city was ruined, but the city lives, tights and gains new vigor in battle. The fighting now extends to base- ments and staircases, to caves in the hills surrounding the city, to housetops and gardens and court- yards. All of Stalingrad is a battle- field. The Germans have hurled di- vision after division, but the Stalin- y has been resurrected from the flames and blood. Its defenders held onto the outskirts and ned tons of bombs, thousands of tons, on the streets and squares where only recently evards where the gardeners had‘so tenderly planted trees and flowers, on its market sneer grad steppe is large enough to hold - many more Nazi sraves. The Nazi divisions come and die. Lhe Nazi drummers brought here for a tri- umphant march into the city lie rotting at its approaches. TALINGRAD stands in ruins and ashes, its battered walls towering over the Volga. It has be- come the symbol of Russia. There are no forts and no concrete de- fenses hiere. The defense lines run through streets and courtyards, through the home of a modest bookkeeper who had lived here with his wife, two children and his old mother; through numerous such homes; through a factory yard where the workers build guns; through gardens where this summer, lov- ers still were sitting on these ruined benches. The war has made this city the center of the front, the local point where the military operations will greatly influence the outcome of the entire war. Stalingrad’s defense line runs through the hearts of the Russian people. This the Germans have learned in eventful days of battle. They talk of Verdun, but this is not Verdun. It is something altogether new in the history of warfare—it is Stalingrad. £ nerves, perseverance and stay- | in defining the > in | Russians Have Prepared Way For Victory By MAX WERNER USSIA'S defence of Stalingerad ranks as one of the greatest military feats of the war. There hay been no favorable factors of terrain or climate to help. The (Red Army is fighting for a narrow and theoretically undefend- able sector of the front, in which the great Volga River is a handicap rather than an advantage or a line of defence. It is true the Volga handicaps the Germans as well, Since it hampers the enyelopment of the defenders, but its disadvan- tages for the Russians are greater. This water barrier in the rear hin- ders the bringing up of supplies and reinforcements. There is no comparison with the struggle for Moscow, which was de- fended in the first phase by a battle in depth, in which the Red Army could deploy its forces from a wide base. Moscow was saved by a counter manoeuvre on a wide front, with flanking blows against the Germans from north and south. Further, the Russians held firmly all the entrances to the city. There was no fight within the city. The defenders of Stalingrad lack all these advantages. They are fighting against the concentrated offensive of the German war ma- chine on a narrow front. Here the Germans are laying down a greater fire power, and with @ greater intensification of offen- sive weapons, than was used against Moscow. I mean this in the sense that the concentration of heavy artillery, aviation, and tanks per square mile is far greater before Stalingrad than was possible on the much wider front before Moscow. Theoretically, the Germans must now be able to destroy every yard of the defended area and sét on fire whatever will burn. Only the in- eredible tenacity of the Russian infantry and the fine use of the ex- cellent Russian artillery has hither- to prevented the Germans from overcoming the last lines of the defence. Tf further proof is needed of Rus- Slan fighting capacity, it is given here. Under similar conditions, the Germans would be unable to with- stand such an offensive. and November of 1941 was merely a continuation of that great Ger- man move. The Battle of Moscow launched in October of last year ended in failure. September is the last month suitable for a war of movement on the Russian front. This does not mean that -milizary operations will cease, and the siege of Leningrad may well be intens:fied in October or after. Nor is it im- possible that the German will try to repeat the strategy of offensive at any price in the late autumn.. But it is more probable that the German High Command will take into consideration the lessons of 1941. The time won in the defence of Stalingrad has prevented a deeper The German stake at Stalingrad penetration by the Germans into is even greater than is the Russian. | the Caucasus, and made it virtually For the Red Army, Stalingrad’s Strategic position, and the fact that it is a centre of communications, make it of vast importance, but for Hitler the issue of the campaign and of the war is at stake there. di Germany fails at Stalingrad, then the whole German offensive this year will be fruitless. It will furthermore be conclusive evidence of the decline in German offensive power. It will be a strategic de- feat. For German mere territorial or economie gains will not win the war, and the successes of this sum- mer must be measured in relation to the German plan as a whole. Whatever the final issue at Stalin- grad may be, the Red Army has won precious time and inflicted tre- mendous losses on the Germans. e Awe last offensive won by the Germans was at Kiev in Sep- tember, 1941. The further penetra- tion into the Ukraine in October , weather, ;impossible for them to undertake ;any offensive operation on the cen- tral front. Not one German blow has been struck northwest of Voro- nezh. The German front in the south is now stretched to four or five times the extent of November, 1941. This campaign has proved again that every German offensive has its limits, and that no single offen- Sive can bring about a finai mili- tary decision, sRussian resistance — not Rus- Slan space — has successfully re- stricted the extent of the German offensives. Last year the Germans could launch offensives simultane- ously in the centre and the south. This year they have been restricted to the south, though in two direc- tions, towards the Volga and to- wards the Caucasus. But in Sept., 1942, when the peak ‘of the German offensive was ex- | pected and was favored by the the main German blow was maintained in one direction only against Stalingrad. The German advance in the Caucasus thas been limited in pace and ex- tent. Russian territorial and economic losses, together with the danger to the lower Volga and the Russian supply system, remain alarming facts by any standards. The dan- ger to the Caucasus is not yet ehecked. But since late summer the defensive power of the Red Army in this area has been streng- thened. e AST year and this the Russians have achieved far more than a simple defence of Russia. Alone and in fighting of unparalleled ferocity and extent, Russia has whittled down the strength of the German Army and prepared the way for its final exhaustion and the victory of the United Nations. It is now definitely established that a relatively small additional force — not a force of overwhelm- ing strength — would be enough to ensure superiority over the German Army in the HBuropean theatre of war. The Germans have been able to make new gains on the Russian front this year only because they have been free to concentrate their entire offensive power in Russia. On the debit side of the balance sheet this year are not only the Don and Kuban rivers. For, broad- ly speaking, 1942 has been the year of lost opportunities. No unified war plan, no combined Allied action, was produced to meet the Wehr- macht. The Germans were given a clear field. The flames of Stalingrad are the most tragic appeal for the strategy of a war of coalition.