RUSSIA’S MOMENT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 248, 1 August 1941, Page 5

RUSSIA’S MOMENT

RAPID PREPARATIONS MAGE. THE FIRST COUNTER-OFFENSIVE. I GERMAN STRATEGY FAILING. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 31. Reports from most sources declare that the moment for which Russia has awaited is now come, and preparations for the first counter-offensive are being rapidly advanced. Despite the apparent stabilisation of the front, the present trench warfare may be merely the springboard for future operations, with the battle again taking on a mobile character. German military commanders are believed to realise that their present strategy is failing and that they are trying to find a satisfactory answer to the new conditions. Features which surprised and dismayed the German High Command are the ease and smoothness with which the Russian railways are rushing up supplies and reinforcements to the threatened sectors, and the apparently inexhaustible number of fresh reserves which the Soviet, Command possesses, and the first appearance in largo numbers of a new- type of Russian tank of special heavy armour. The. Moscow correspondent of the *‘Daily Express” states that thousands of Red Army troops swarm out of secret underground fortifications to attack the flank of each new German assault on Smolensk. The Russian tactics are forcing the German spearheads to fan out, depriving them of their driving power. Whenever-the* Germans encounter an obstacle which they are unable to force, their panzer columns tiy to turn the Russian flanks; hut the Russians counter this move by extending their own lines so that each main battle area is. now extending over an ever-widening front, to the disadvantage of the Germans, who rely largely on lightning thrusts to carry them through the enemy lines. BATTLES CONTINUING. (Ree. 12.30 p.m.} LONDON, July 31 The Russian afternoon eommuniquo states: Battles continued throughout the night in the directions of Porkhov, Novorzum, Smolensk, and Jitomir. There was no large-scale fighting on the other sectors. Soviet aircraft coordinated with the land forces and operated against enemv mechanised units, infantry and artillery.—British Official Wireless.