GERMAN THRUST HALTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 9, 22 October 1941, Page 5

GERMAN THRUST HALTED

OFFENSIVE ON MOSCOW CHANGE AT LENINGRAD RUSSIANS TAKE INITIATIVE (United Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 11.15 a.m.) > LONDON, October 21. Soviet forces fiercely counter-attacked and stemmed the ' new German thrust south-west of Moscow, says a Tass Agency dispatch from the front. The Germans, however, advanced several miles from Mojaisk with tremendous losses, but after a terrific tank battle the advance was halted at the crossroads on the Mojaisk-Moscow highway. The fighting in the Malo Yaroslavets direction was equally intense. The enemy launched several attacks trying to pierce the Russian lines, but were beaten off with heavy losses. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper “Social Demogratens” reports that German officials admit that the offensive against Moscow has assumed a stationary character. They give as the reason the complicated, widespread operations. The German News Agency states that Soviet troops yesterday attacked with great ferocity a broad front against German troops advancing in the Lake Ladoga area. The attacks were repelled. Declaring that the Russians have taken the iniriarive in the Leningrad sector, the Rome newspaper “Corriere Della Sera describes the landing of 4000 Russian troops, supported by heavy artillery and planes, behind the German lines on the Leningrad front. Soviet planes swooped to within a few yards of the ground and machine-gunned German positions. A special announcement in Berlin states that all the Baltic islands, including Dago, are in German hands. Dago was finally captured after 10 days’ fierce fighting. The campaign in the Baltic is now considered ended. A German communique says that Italian and German units yesterday occupied the area around the town of Stalin. Alpine detachments took the town. During the mopping-up of the battlefield east of Bryansk, General Patrov (Commander-in*Chief of the 50th Soviet Army, and a member of the Supreme Soviet Council) and several of his staff were killed. i