-44-#669, Eighteenth, from London              
 
                                                            
 
 
and costly sortie which has been repulsed with heavy slaughter 
      and have expended in the endeavor forces which they cannot replace 
      against an enemy who has already more than replaced every loss 
      he has sustained. These German forces are needed now not only 
      to support the German front in the West but even more to fill 
      the awful rents only now emerging upon our consciousness as the 
      telegrams come in which have been torn in their Eastern line 
      by the magnificent onslaught of the main Russian armies along 
      the Entire front from the Baltic to Budapest. Marshal Stalin 
      is very punctual. He would rather be before his time than late 
      in the combinations of the Allies. I cannot attempt to set limits 
      to the superb and titanic events, which we are now witnessing 
      in the East or to their reactions in every theatre. I can only 
      say it is certain that the whole of the eastern and western fronts 
      and the long front in Italy where 27 German divisions are still 
      held by no more than their own numbers will henceforward be kept 
      in constant flame until the final climax is reached. The advance 
      of the enormous forces of Soviet Russia across Poland and elsewhere 
      into Germany and German-held territory must produce consequences 
      of a character and degree about which the wisest strategists 
      and the most far-sighted prophets will reserve their opinion 
                   until the results are known.             
 
                                                            
 
 
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