Before the Fir-lined Passes

At one point the first wave of the Russian tide washed to the foot of the Carpathian wall. Out on the flats of the Ukraine other waves began to lap at Odessa.

The anticipated fall of Odessa might seem the more important, but actually it was by far the lesser of the two events. Odessa was but a sand castle which the rising tide appeared certain to engulf. How the breakers will strike the mountain wall became a far more pertinent question.

Marshal Zhukov's army, on the Ukrainian right flank, was the first to reach the foothills of the Carpathians. Behind it burning villages still dotted the plain of Bukovina, which it had crossed after cap turing Cernauti. And above it stood two famed Carpathian passes which Russian armies in one bitter winter of World War I fought to attain, but never succeeded in gaining.

The Passes. The two passes at whose entrances the Russians stood -- the Jablonica and Tartar Passes southwestward into Czechoslovakia -- are not so rugged and impregnable as some of the territory around Cassino, for example. The passes rise only to about 3,000 ft., above wan dering valleys. The mountains are rolling rather than precipitous.

Though far from impregnable by nature, the Carpathians here offer much greater defensive possibilities than the wide plains which the Russians have crossed to reach them. How well dug in the Germans are is a matter of conjecture, but it is probable that neither pass is as well guarded this week as it will be three or five weeks hence.

Thus opportunity knocks for Marshal Zhukov. But the question whether he can force the Carpathians depends on how much momentum is left in the Russian wave. In general, Russian tactics is to plunge ahead -- as the armies usually do when they come to a river barrier. If they do the same in the face of mountains (which they have rarely met before in this war), this week may put to the proof the relative exhaustion of the retreating Germans and advancing Russians.

Sidewash. But when a wave strikes a wall it may, instead of sweeping over, sweep sideward, right & left. If the Russians believe they cannot breach the wall, they may choose another course.

If the Carpathian wall is to halt the Russians, it will likewise divide the south ern German front into two distinct sectors, just as the Pripet Marshes divide it farther north. In this case the Germans will have two new fronts to defend.

One front faces west, into Poland and the most direct route to Berlin. It faces broad plains on which lie the cities of Lwow and Przemysl, where several battles of World War I were fought. Zhukov, skirting the northern wall of the Carpathians, might drive for this old battle field.

The other front faces south, into eastern Rumania. It is a front which the Germans are now trying to organize with fresh reserves and the beaten troops stumbling back from the Ukraine.

Here, as at the northern passes, opportunity also knocks, for the Germans have as yet had little time to organize. If the Russians drive southward along the eastern wall of the Carpathians, the Ploesti oilfields, one-third of Hitler's oil supply, can be taken, Bucharest and the German frontage on the Black Sea could be liquidated. If the drive continued successfully the Russians could fight their way west, where the Carpathians curve back, to reach the easiest of the Carpathian passes, facing north from the valley of the muddy Danube.

Cleaning Up. This week, after several days of inactivity (probably waiting for supplies to catch up), Marshal Konev's Central Ukrainian Army pushed across the Prut River and resumed its southward and westward march, narrowing the Nazi escape corridor from the Ukraine and at the same time mopping up Bessarabia and penetrating Rumania proper.

In their first invasion of Axis soil, the Russians forced the river crossing at several points and advanced along a 165-mile front. One column was reported within 200 miles of Bucharest and the valuable Ploesti oilfields. Moscow newspapers proudly printed dispatches datelined "Across the Border," although Moscow already had disavowed any plans of conquest.

Farther east on the left wing, Malinovsky's army captured the coastal fort of Ochakov and steadily encroached on the German lines before Odessa. As things were going, it looked as though the Germans, if they were to extricate their troops, would have to evacuate a good portion of them by sea.

For the Russians, the remainder of the Ukrainian campaign was a cleanup operation, but it had to be cleaned up in a hurry. The Germans obviously intended to slow them up as much as possible--for time to the Germans means opportunity to anchor a new front in Rumania.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.