Not Yet

The Russians' only definition of a second front is Allied action which will compel the Germans to withdraw great numbers of troops, weapons and planes from the Russian front.

Last week, before the Americans landed in Vichy Africa, there were private reports that the British victory in Egypt had already compelled the Germans to withdraw troops and planes from both the Stalingrad, and Caucasus fronts. Up to this week neither official announcements nor visible events in Russia had confirmed these rumors. When & if such withdrawals do occur, the Russians will know that they have their second front.

But a significant change in Wehrmacht strategy last week indicated that the Germans' actual margin of supremacy in Russia may be narrow indeed. Stalingrad became a secondary theater. The ports and oilfields of the Caucasus and the entrances to the Caucasus passes leading to the Middle East suddenly became the primary objectives at which the Germans aimed their strong thrusts. It looked as if the Germans might not have enough strength for pushes in both areas. But, both at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus, the Red Army was still on the defensive. The Germans' difficulties in Russia had not created for the Russians the margin which the Red Army needs for a successful offensive. According to the Russians' London Ambassador, Ivan Maisky, nothing less than the withdrawal of 40 German divisions will be enough.

Winter alone gave the Russians a certain margin last year--not in relative numbers of men and weapons, but in capacity for winter war. Perhaps the Russians were hoping only to exploit that margin again when, according to German reports last week, they began to concentrate forces for a two-pronged offensive on their hitherto inactive fronts between Moscow and Leningrad. These preparations may enable the Russians to take advantage of any further margin which the Mediterranean front may create.

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