SLOWED DOWN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 252, 6 August 1941, Page 6

SLOWED DOWN

( GERMAN DRIVE ON KIEV. NO CHANGE AT SMOLENSK. THE GERMAN PROPAGANDA, —■ (United Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 12&5 p.fii.) LONDON, Aug. f The new German pinCef drive ag&in&t Kiev. appears to have been greatly slowed down, if not fully checked. 1' or the third shceeSsi vo dhy theSdvi'ct com* nuihi'que hhh'oiittded lighting in the directions oi' KoroSton and Ryelaya Tserkov. The Berlin correspondents of the Swedish newspapers suggest that the German High Command is specially emphasising the Ukraine drive in orator to give to German public the impression that operations ate terminating in the Smolensk area. They are making the same claims of successful encirclement • in the Kiev region as they made in the early. days of the drive against Smolensk. The Germans similarly promise enormous captures of men and material. . The Russians, however, persistently refuse to “lie down” in the ShiblehsK sector, whore the hostilities are covered by the Russian communique’s familiar phrase, “continued fighting.”, It is hot yet clear whether the switch of German attention from Smolensk to the son til—and to a lesser extent to the north—indicates determination to develop fresh major drives m these .areas or merely constitutes a. diversion While the Germans are massing , for a greater effort in the centre. The “Times” correspondent at Stoeljc holm says that the Russian reference to Khelin suggests that-tlm Russians retired from Novorjey. Indeed the chief, or only* reason for strongly defending NOvorjev WOuld he to hold the important railway, running parallel with the Russian frontier. The region around Kholm is Very marshy and should ho easily defehdable against heavv vehicles, which are scarcely likely to attempt to press far eastwards in this area. The (Germans may therefore swing northwards to join the general offensive against Leningrad or southwards toward Sokolniki and Neval to augment the converging thrusts planned against Moscow. Nothing beyond the official German claims suggests that the' situation around Smolensk lias 'substantially changed. There is no evidence justifying the German reference to a collapse, which is extremely unlikely.