Monday, 3 July

Zhu Ying (朱英) of the Central News Agency is back from the central route Front line saying that five divisions of the German army in Vitebsk were encircled and eliminated. Three division commanders were killed, while one disappeared and one was captured. He talked to the captured Division Commander as follows. 1) the German side has already anticipated that the Red Army will mount an offensive in the central route, but it doesn’t expect Soviet troops to be so numerous in manpower and ammunition. The said five divisions are encircled and cannot break through the encirclement. The Red Army planes have an extremely big advantage. Therefore not only the linkage between the German army there and Germany Proper has been cut off, they are also unable to maintain communications between the various sections in the German army. As a result the German army has dissolved. 2) They were defeated because they had to fight on several fronts. This remark is almost the same as what Garreau said.

Attaché Hu is back from the Romanian Front. She reported that the Soviet army did not interfere in local administration. The Municipal Government was nominated by the local maintenance society before the Red Army’s arrival. There were four landlords still staying at Botosane, and the Soviet Government did not have any intention of implementing its land policy. Even regarding Bessarabia which the Soviet Union obtained from Romania in the past, it did not implement a collective farm system. Local government officials expressed openly that they did not want either Communism or Republicanism. They only asked for constitutional monarchy. But the Red Army seemed to react badly to such an inclination. So it seemed to be that what the Soviet Union did meet its promise that it would not interfere in the internal politics of Romania. People had adequate food, and they got more bread than in Italy, and they were allowed to trade freely, but they have to use army currency issued by the Red Army.

Today the Red Army recovered Minsk, the capital of Belarus. That city was one of the most important big cities in the western side of the Soviet Union and was occupied by the enemy for three years and six days. It has not been recovered until now. So there was a gun salute in Moscow, and spirits were high. I heard that after the defeat the German army was in an extremely bleak mood and morale was very low. Many of them surrendered. The Soviet side announced that in the past ten days German casualties and prisoners captured were more than 200,000. From this one can determine the Red Army’s strength.