If the Germans were still engaged in "strategic retreat" in Russia, they were strangely unstrategic about it last week. They allowed the Russians to drive a huge wedge between their Leningrad and Moscow fronts which, if it could be maintained and extended, might prove to be a major strategic defeat for the Germans.
In a sudden thrust, Marshal Klimenti Voroshilov advanced 65 miles in ten days, swept around the Valdai Hills; recaptured Kholm, only 110 miles from the Latvian frontier; and cut the Leningrad-Vitebsk railroad, essential to German communication with Leningrad. In addition to claiming the death of 17,000 Germans, the...