GERMANS’ CLAIMS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 238, 21 July 1941, Page 5

GERMANS’ CLAIMS

OCCUPATION OF . SMOLENSK. NOVOGRAD VOLYNSK CAPTURED. RUSSIAN ATTACK ON CONVOY. (United Press Association —Copyright.) / LONDON, July 20.

The outstanding feature of . the latest Russian communique is a report of another attack on a large and strongly-escorted German convoy in the Baltic Sea. The communique says aeroplanes on reconnaissance discovered the convoy, which was attacked from the air and by motor torpedoboats and destroyers. Eleven German transports and an oil tanker were sunk for the loss of one aeroplane and a motor torpedo-boat.

Of the fighting on land the Russians have no new developments to report. While the German High Command claims that Smolensk, about 220 miles west from Moscow, was captured on July 3.6, the Russians do not admit the fair of the city, although they speak of heavy fighting in the Smolensk sector. The Germans claimed that the strongly-fortified Stalin Line had been penetrated in the Vitebsk area, 80 miles north-west of Smolensk, and widened in the vicinity of Smolensk, which fell after stubborn fighting. The Moscow newspaper “Red Star” claims that guerilla forces, operating in the, German rear, captured two neighbouring cities and wiped out the German garrisons. Amplifying the German claim to have captured Smolensk, the Official German News Agency says that while fierce artillery fire was still going on round the town, a German detachment in a lightning attack penetrated the defences and occupied the outer districts. Considerable Soviet forces were destroyed.

The capture of Novograd Volynsk on the Ukrainian front is claimed by the Official German News Agency, but there is no confirmation of this from Russian sources.

A German communique claims that German and Rumanian troops from Bessarabia forced a passage over the river Dniester at several points. The Finnish Army broke stiff enemy resistance and pressed forward on the northern shores of Lake Ladoga. In the Kiev sector, a Soviet divisional general and numerous high staff officers were captured. The Berlin radio reports' that Smolensk was set on fire by the retreating Russians on Wednesday, and that it is still burning. It describes the city as a smoking scene of desolation. It alleges that German soldiers brought hundreds of charred bodies from the gaol, and also that the deputy commissar of' the city had ordered the evacuation of women and children, but when this could not be effected he and his family fled,, leaving the city to its fate. The radio referred to endless streams of captured Russians being taken through streets strewn with: wrecked tanks, guns and lorries. Losses in Aeroplanes. The Russians claim that their air force yesterday continued its destruction of enemy mechanised units, motorised troops and, aeroplanes. They also claimed the wiping out of 200 German parachutists, 120 of whom were killed and 80 of whom surrendered.

Russian guerilla parties are being organised in Norway, where fires destroyed. a German Army garage and depots for grain, fuel and ammunition. Serious disturbances are reported to have broken out in Slovakia, where dozens of Germans have been manhandled and seriously injured. A Russian communique issued yesterday’ said: “During the night of July 18-19 our troops continued intense fighting in the Polotsk, Nevel, Smolensk, and Bobruisk sectors. Nothing of importance occurred in other sectors of the front. Our air force on Friday and on Friday night destroyed mechanised units of the enemy and acted against the' enemy air force on his aerodromes.

“In addition to figures previously stated, during Wednesday and Thursday, our air force destroyed 39 enemy aeroplanes. Our losses in the same period were 16. During Friday our air force destroyed 32 enemy aeroplanes.” The Vichy News Agency mentions an unconfirmed report that the Germans have taken prisoner M. Stalin’s son ,by a former marriage, who was an infantry lieutenant. It is reported from Ankara that Russian bombings have so severely damaged the Ploesti oilfields that the Rumanian authorities have notified Turkish importers that oil deliveries must be drastically cut in the near future. Rumania’s oil refining capacity has been reduced by millions of tons a year. One plant burned for 18 hours and 200,000 tons of petroleum products, 18 tanks, and other equipment were r set on fire.

The Red Air Force reports the destruction of two transports and five oil barges on the Danube.

The secret German anti-party radio violently attacked the treatment of German wounded on the eastern front. It alleged that wounded men were dying in thousands because after a simple injection they were transported back from the front in carts for hundreds of miles over bumpy roads before receiving further treatment.