(2 of 2)
The Blitzkrieg is godless war; God does not necessarily aid the side with the biggest battalions. Materiel and strategy count for much. The Germans could honestly say last week that they had long had air superiority and now for the first time clearly had tank superiority (see col. 3).
They could also say they were marching on Moscow. A Berlin spokesman said last week: "No city is the objective of our operations. If Moscow should fall within the range of them, that would make no difference to us. We aim to catch, surround and destroy the enemy armies wherever they may be." Just the same, the Germans could not help remembering what a difference the fall of Paris made, knowing what the fall of Berlin would mean to themselves. Last week the city itself was not immediately threatened; this week Joseph Stalin's Government was preparing to move, possibly to Stalingrad.
So much the Germans could say; no more. It takes one to start a fight, but it takes two to make an end of fighting. There was no apparent disposition in Moscow last week to call a halt. Said Soviet Spokesman Solomon ' A. Lozovsky: "The possibility of destroying the Soviet Union is absurd. We are confident of success because it is impossible to destroy the U.S.S.R., Britain and the United States. The Germans are dizzy with temporary successes. No single battle can finish this war. We . . . have no doubt as to the ultimate outcome."
There was a world of difference—and there might be a long, weary time—between the immediate decision of which the Germans were so confident and the ultimate outcome as to which the Russians had no doubt.