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Show purpose than to thin down Russian reserves. How far the Germans will go in their drive, which has crossed the Don river, is beyond guesswork. There is no way to tell the damage dam-age inflicted upon the retreating Russian armies and much will depend de-pend upon their successful realignment. realign-ment. While losses have been severe, se-vere, there is little or no indication indica-tion that the Red army in the region re-gion of the offensive has been destroyed. de-stroyed. As usual, the Nazi success has been accompanied by many prophecies pro-phecies of absolute disaster for the j Russians. These are not yet based upon anything but the apprehension apprehen-sion of American writers. Conceivably, Conceiv-ably, the German may capture Stalingrad Sta-lingrad and Astrakan, or disrupt Soviet communications facilities. Such a disaster, while possible, is j not to be expected as a result of the advances scored on a small part of the front. German Gains Were Expected ... The great battle going on in Russia Rus-sia must be viewed in the perspective perspec-tive of the past and the outlook of the future. Those who followed the campaigns of 1st summer and last winter in Russia expected Nazi advances ad-vances when the Germans decided to press forward in 1942. The objective ob-jective involved is the destruction of the fighting power of the Soviet Union and nothing less than this will give Hitler the triumph that he must have to avert impending . I I i'l :. . f 1 1 . l III ( (l FORWARD MARCH By n. S. Sims, Jr. i i i i i.. 1 1 1 1 1 1 i i i i i i i iiiiii,! Hitler's summer offensive is gathering ga-thering momentum against Russia, but the great battle being fought, with millions of men in a death grapple, makes little news available avail-able to the outside world. There Is no way to tell how many divisions are struggling on the Eastern front, or to estimate the thousands of guns, vehicles and planes being used to decide the fate of Russia. The German offensive south of Kursk followed the Kerch offensive offen-sive and the capture of Sevastopol, Sevasto-pol, which cleared the Crimea of Russian resistance, giving greater security to the German flank. Without definite information as to the strength of the contending armies, it is probable that the Nazis are stronger, in relation to the Red army, than a year ago. The Russians, with unlimited reserves re-serves of manpower, have soldiers In abundance but the German edge In equipment and transportation facilities Is considerable. SMik To Destroy The Ited Armies . . . While the initial phase of the long-expected offensive, undoubtedly undoubt-edly designed to knock Russia out of the war, was launched on a front of about two hundred miles, the battle will spread to the north, around Moscow, if for no other . . The present fighting is not on the grand scale of last year's offensive, of-fensive, which began when Germany's Ger-many's articles invaded Russia on a front which stretched from Murmansk Mur-mansk to Odessa. Last year, the Nazis expected to destroy the Soviet So-viet Republic. Despite these territorial terri-torial gains and great victories! the Germans failed. In the winter, the : the American coast in a most et-i fective fashion. Sinkings in the western Atlantic region are steadily stead-ily approaching the 400" mark and the loss of so many ships cannot be viewed as a diversion. It ser-iousy ser-iousy affects the ability of the United States to transport supplies to the battle fronts and represents, at this time, a serious handicap to the effective use of our industrial power. Red army struck back to regain approximately one-fifth of the territory ter-ritory lost, but significantly failed to recapture German strong points! from which Nazi operations have i i i j i uemi iHimciieu. Egyptian Stalmate . . . In other sectors of the great; World War, the United Nations , found little comfort in the middle of July. In Egypt, where the fast-moving fast-moving Germans were halted at El Alamein, seventy-five miles from ' Alexandria, something of a sale-mate sale-mate followed, with both sides I working feverishly to move rein-. f orcements and supplies to the front. The British made several encouraging en-couraging advances, but observers! believe that the final decision hinges upon control of the air and the ability of the two armies to j bring up equipment, supplies, and troops for the next big test. Chinese Position Deteriorates . . . In the Far East, the Japanese invaders of China are seeking to control the rail line between Singapore Singa-pore and Shanghai in the hope of obtaining an attack-proof supply line to the riches of conquered territory. ter-ritory. The Japs are also anxious to clean up territory which might offer of-fer air bases for large-scale attacks at-tacks upon Japan itself. Already, the Chinese have been virtually cut off from their allied supply lines and, stated frankly, China is in a less favorable condition than before be-fore Pearl Harbor. U-Boat Losses Are Serious . . . The war on the sea, for the past month, has been featured by the steady sinking of merchantment by German U-boats operating off |