STRIKING BACK

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 280, 8 September 1941, Page 5

STRIKING BACK

THE DEFENCE OF LENINGRAD.

INCREASINGLY BITTER FIGHT.

SOVIET ADVANTAGE IN SUPPLIES

(United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, September 7.

The 12th week of the war in Russia opened to-day With increasingly bitter fighting for Leningrad. Messages from Moscow say that Russian counterattacks are hammering the German de - fences.

The Russian Tass Agency reports that in one sector south of the city the Russians have driven the Germans from a village and across a river, forcing them on to the defensive. At- another point a Gorman tank column broke through, but it was cut off by a pincers movement and was hammered by Russian artillery for two days.

The Germans say that a railway junction north of the city on the old Finnish frontier has been captured and that the southern defences have been pierced in one place at least. A German radio spokesman last night, however, admitted that some of Leningrad’s railway communications were still open.

The Germans Reinforced. The Germans in the Leningrad area are battling with enormous Russian forces, against which they are obliged to send constant reinforcements in order to maintain their positions, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. There is a strong impression in Moscow that events are taking a more favourable turn, he adds. Leningrad’s defence, like those of Kiev and Odessa, has been organised with immense thoroughness.

The Germans claimed yesterday that long-range guns were shelling positions inside Leningrad, but there is no confirmation of this in Moscow. Finnish reports state that fires in Leningrad can be seen from the frontier.

Fifty miles from Leningrad is where the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times,” writing on Friday', placed the Germans who are attacking in the Leningrad area, and the correspondent of “The Times” on the German frontier declares that they had made virtually no progress for a day because of the boggy roads, extensive floods, and the indomitable Russian resistance.

The Stockholm correspondent of “The’ Times” declared that- the Germans had not rut the Moscow - Leningrad railway, and bad not closed any sort of ring around Leningrad, but be said they had an advanced line from the Gulf of Finland at a point north of Ivingisepp, thence ‘ south-east, to the Valdai Hills. Thus the position could be characterised as stabilised.

Mastery in Air. With incessant fighting, day and night, and with the prospects favouring the side which is able longest to maintain the tremendous expenditure in ammunition and machines, Marshal Voroshilov has the great advantage of supply bases close to his rear. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” states that over Leningrad the Red Air Force still holds the mastery, beating off repeated raids against railways, factories, and marshalling yards. The Luftwaffe lias completely tailed in its attempts to bomb the naval base of Kronstadt. One correspondent describes the rocks round the fortress as littered with the wreckage of German aeroplanes. German dive-bombers are operating non-stop against the Russians who are defending Leningrad, but the Russians’ anti-aircraft fire and their dogged fighter onslaughts are playing costly havoc with the German bombers. Seventeen of 30 German bombers which attempted to raid military objectives on the approaches to Leningrad were shot down The Rome radio says that Britishmade aeroplanes are among Russian aircraft shot down in the Leningrad area, but there is no confirmation ot this in London. The Russians claim to have destroyed two- German aerodromes west of Lake Ilmen, wiping out 74 aeroplanes stationed there; The .Germans claim that 65 Russian aeroplanes were destroyed on Thursday.

Threat to Kroiwstadt. A German communique states tliau the encirclement of Leningrad is proceeding and that the city is already under fire from heavy artillery, liiit German officials later admitted that this did not necessarily moan that tne qity proper was being shelled. They explained that long-range guns were firing on bridges and railways between Leningrad and Slilusselbin’g. The Germans say that the Finnish advance has brought them practically within artillery range of Kronstadt. Telephone dispatches from Leningrad to Moscow say that hitter fighting is going on at the approaches to the city. The Russians, who are continuously counter-attacking, recaptured four villages at the approaches and advanced nearly a mile at one point, inflicting heavy losses on the Germans. The dispatches added that the defenders of Tallinn dramatically arrived in Leningrad and immediately went into action. Their arrival disproves the German claim to have sunk the transports which wore evacuating troops from Estonia, and it has greatly cheered the besieged city.