Yeshcho Raz

Over the caked mud of the Kuban region and on thaw-softened battlefields stretching northward for 1,500 miles, the Wehrmacht and the Red Army prepared for the summer struggles of 1943.

The Germans, trying to enlarge their Caucasian bridgehead in the Kuban, threw eight to ten divisions into a fruitless offensive. In the Kalinin sector, northwest of Moscow, General Maxim Purkaev, Soviet Military Attache in Berlin when war began, led a limited Soviet drive through the scrubby birch forests. But the most important action was taking place behind the fronts.

Ankara reported vast German concentrations along the Eastern Front, predicted unprecedented carnage. The Russians, again on the defensive after their winter drives, brought up Siberian reserves, braced themselves for the shock of yet another great German offensive. Moscow showed confidence, but no complacency. Pravda remarked soberly that although the Luftwaffe had lost 5,090 planes during the winter, still "the enemy's air fleet is very strong and a potent weapon in the hands of the German command."

There is an old Russian cry of confidence and determination--Yeshcho raz ("Once again," used in the sense of "Heave ho"). It was the cry this week for the waiting Red Army.

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