NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE New Year breaks for Germany with sombre omens. Not by reverses in one element only, but by land, sea and air alike, have the closing days of 1943 been signalised. The word omen, moreover, is used advisedly, for what has happened this week is of moment less in itself than as prelude of what is to come. Berlin has been bombed again: it will be bombed more and more, as all Germans know well, till there is no Berlin left to bomb. The Royal Navy has sunk the Scharnhorst' in northern waters and at least three German destroyers in the Bay of Biscay. That leaves the Royal Navy more supreme, and what remains of the German fleet more im- potent, than ever. Hitler in a moment of desperation may order his ships, such of them as are seaworthy, to sea to do what damage they an before they meet their inevitable doom. But he may remember, perhaps, that the revolution of 1918 began on the warships at Kiel. In any event, the elimination of an enemy battleship and several destroyers is a considerable relief to Powers about to engage in overseas operations of unprecedented magnitude. On land the triumph at the moment is Russia's. The sinking of the r Scharnhorst' affects her, too, for it removes the greatest menace to convoys bound for North Russian ports. The material they bring will feed the offensives that are maturing ; and not indeed maturing only, for the fighting in progress around Vitebsk and in the Kiev bulge, where almost all the ground occupied by Manstein has been re- captured, has already won a rich harvest. We have entered the phase of the war so long desired in which blows are raining on Germany simultaneously on every side. That terrible deluge will increase, not diminish. No nation could withstand that long.
