- 10 - industrial capacity. Stalin said they had dispersed a good many of their larger factories and were moving many machine tools eastward to escape the bombing attacks. Stalin repeatedly stated that he did not underrate the German Army. He stated that their organization was of the very best and that he believed that they had large reserves of food, men, supplies and fuel. He thinks that we may be under estimating Germany's oil supplies, and he bases this on the fact that under the two-year agreement they had with Germany, the Germans asked for less fuel than the agreement provided for during the year 1940-41. He thought one weakness the British had was underrating their enemy; he did not propose to do this. He, therefore, thinks that so far as men, supplies, food and fuel are concerned, the German Army is capable of taking part in a winter campaign in Russia. He thinks, however, that it would be difficult for the Germans to operate offensively much after the first of September, when the heavy rains will begin, and after October 1st the ground would be so bad that they would have to go on the defensive. He ex- pressed great confidence that the line during the winter months would be in front of Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad - probably not more than l00 kilometres away from where it is now. He thinks that one of the great advantages the Russian Army has at the moment is that the Germans "are tired" and have no stomach for an offensive. He realizes that Germany can still in all at the Russian front, but these divisions probably cannot get there before the hard weather sets in. |