World: Close to the Earth

(See Cover)

The ground under the Red troops punching into central Poland and the Baltic littoral was no longer Russian ground; the air was no longer Russian air. But it was Russian-dominated air. The Red Air Force finally commanded it, almost as decisively as the troops below its airmen dominated the terrain.

At a forward observation post in the south, where the stench of high explosives and of the dead defiled the delicate scent of apple blossoms, leathery, bullet-headed Marshal Ivan Konev last week briefed his commanders. He spoke of the new power of...