Bright Prospect

Adolf Hitler, ordering his troops last week to stand fast on the Eastern Front, justified the demand by recalling that German troops fought successfully through four winters in Russia during the campaigns of 1914-17. But German Armies then did not winter in the open, nor did they get within 350 miles of the forward positions they now hold, far from their sources of supply.

Glorying in the bitter weather that Germans found nearly unbearable, the Russians continued their systematic pressure against Novgorod and the siege of Leningrad. Encircled and facing annihilation were German defenders of Mozhaisk, last Nazi stand within Moscow's defense area. A "surrender or die" ultimatum was tendered to them and rejected. The Russians recaptured Maloyaroslavets, where Tsar Alexander's Imperial Army almost captured Napoleon. An offensive on the Oka River cut down the crack tank Army of Colonel General Heinz Guderian, broodingly handsome pioneer of modern mechanized warfare. Russian forces cut his Panzers to shreds, took vast supplies of arms and material,-a trainload of newly arrived German tanks.

The week's most telling blow was struck farther south, where Russian soldiers, advancing under heavy German air attacks, occupied the fortress of Kerch and the town of Feodosiya in eastern Crimea. Once Crimea is again in Russian hands (the naval base of Sevastopol is still under German siege), Soviet planes will be based a scant 100 miles from the German-dominated Rumanian coast, the Soviet Fleet again will be an offensive weapon in the Black Sea, and Germany's threat to the oil of the Caucasus will be weakened.

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