Then They Will Know

> Toward the Volga (see above), the Germans advanced.

> Toward Astrakhan, Soviet terminus of the Caspian supply route from Persia (see p. 33), the Germans advanced.

> Toward Grozny's oilfields in the Caucasus, the Germans advanced.

> Toward Novorossiisk, the Red Fleet's last important base on the Black Sea, the Germans advanced.

Thus the Germans in southern Russia approached the objectives of their summer campaign. But they had none of the objectives. They had not destroyed Timoshenko's armies. Only when the summer is run, when the brief Russian fall is whiting into another winter, will the Germans know whether and what they have won. Then the Russians will have decided whether to stand upon their immediate southern line, somewhere near the Volga, or to withdraw to their bastions in the Urals. Then the Germans will measure their huge losses in men, planes, tanks and guns against the sure wear of winter, against the certainty that this year or never they must seal their conquest in southern Russia with victory in the Middle East. Then Hitler will know. Then the world will know. Not before.

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