DEFENCE HOLDING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 7, 20 October 1941, Page 6

DEFENCE HOLDING.

THE LATEST

FIGHTING ON CENTRAL FRONT. WINTER OVERTAKES GERMANS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Ree. 2.45 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 19. Moscow’s 250-mile defence line, running almost due north ahd south between Kalinin and Orel, appears to be holding against even heavier attacks by massed infantry and tanks. The information indicates that the Russian fronts have not altered appreciably since Friday. The heaviest fighting on the central front at present appears to be in the vicinity of Orel and Kalinin. The bitter Russian winter seems to have overtaken Hitler’s panzer divisions as they continue to bat ter the defences on the distant approaches to Moscow. The battlefield, v according to the “izvestia” is covered with a thick carpet of snow. The roads glisten with a hard coating of ice. The Nazi race against winter was elaborated in a Moscow broadcast to Germany thus: “Hitler staked everything on a single throw in order to outwit the Russian winter. The battles are now raging in bad weather. Hitler’s plans have failed. The battle for Moscow is only beginning, but the ground is covered with the corpses of German soldiers, and areas which Nazi generals neatly marked on their maps are soaked with German blood.” Despite the weather fighting is apparently continuing with unabated violence, although the absence of a fresh German claim of progress suggests that the pace of the German drive has slackened. The Russians are counter-attacking on the centre and both wings of the central front. Their ability to do so is regarded as a sign that they are not so thoroughly mauled as the Germans claimed. The Stockholm correspondent ot | “The Times” issues a warning against interpreting the relative lull in the Germans’ progress as indicating slackening of the German offensive. He adds that the Germans are nowhere within 50 miles of Moscow, every mile of which possesses some sort of defence and will certainly be contested at least as stubbornly as the stretch between Vyazma and Mojaisk, which took fresh German troops three weeks to cover. Tank forces are apparently dominating the fighting in the Orel sector, where the Germans are reported to have suffered severe losses as the result of several battles. Reinforcements from All Russia. The newspaper “Pravda” says that the Russian reserves are drawn from the whole of uncaptured Russia, also tanks and planes from England, and America are being sent to the front. The most important Russian counterattacks are in the northern sector, where sanguinary fighting is proceeding for a. town referred to by the “Pravda’’ as ‘Tv,” which is not necessarily Kalinin.

The “Pravda” states that Russian units, supported by the Home Guard, are fighting courageously in the streets and continue to inflict terrific losses on the Germans in attacks against a station held by the Germans. The Germans no sooner cleared the corpses from the station than it was again covered with dead and wounded. The newspaper adds that at least 1500 were killed in the town itself. The Soviet Army newspaper “Red Star” claims that the Germans have been expelled from three unnamed towns on the north sector of the central front. Russian tanks and rifle units are reported to have frustrated the plans of the commander of the Seventh German Division to insert a wedge between the Russian forces operating along the main highway between Kalinin and Moscow', where the Russians threw bacjc the Germans from one town. These Russian forces are now stated to be striking against the flank of the enemy formations holding the Kalinin area.

Around Vyazma, where the Russians still firmly hold the main road to Moscow, the Germans have been attempting flank attacks aimed at driving a wedge into the Russians’ lines. Referring to these attacks the Moscow radio merely remarked that the .enemy intentions had been frustrated. An order of the day signed by M. Stalin stated: “Moscow will be defended to the last. The population of 'Moscow is keeping calm and is ready to give the Red Army every help.” On the extreme southern front the Germans, supported by Italian cavalry, launched a new mass offensive in the direction of Rostov. According to the Moscow radio the Germans aimed to destroy at one blow tiie Russian armies between them and the Donets Basin. The Italian troops were ordered to attack from the flank but were repulsed and suffered heavy losses.s “Mussolini’s incompetent cavalry was so depleted that it was forced to retire for reorganisation and reinforcement,” said the announcer, who added that Russian troops are ready at every point for stemming the enemy’s thrusts.