GREAT BATTLES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 85, 21 January 1942, Page 5

GREAT BATTLES

TWO RAGING ON RUSSIAN FRONT ENEMY POURING WESTWARD. HARRIED INCESSANTLY. (United Press Association—Copyright.) * LONDON, January 19. Two decisive battles are raging in Russia, according to the latest news from Moscow. One is for Mozhaisk, 65 miles west of the capital, and the other for Kharkov, the industrial capital of the Ukraine. At Mozhaisk, General Zhukov’s forces are fighting the Germans in the streets. The“ Red Star” states that the city is in flames, and other reports indicate that the Germans may have already evacuated the town. Russian guards regiments, supported by armoured units, are fighting through Mozhaisk street by street, says the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.’ The cream of the German Army is pouring westwards from Mozhaisk harried incessantly by Russian cavalry and ski patrols, and constantly swept by Stormoviks’ bombs and guns. General Reinhardt’s crack panzer forces covering the German retreat are fighting with the courage born of despair, he adds. From every lane and street corner they are systematically setting fire to the town as they retire. General Zhukov’s legions have trodden underfoot and inflicted appalling losses on German shock troops rushed up from Smolensk. The Russian Air Force has beaten from the sky the swarms of Stukas and fighters which the German High Command desperately flung , into the battle. Breach Made to South. The correspondent declares that the capture of Mozhaisk was • assured when Russian artillery blasted'an opening in the German defences at Vereya, 13 miles south-east of Mozhaisk. Strong Russian forces immediately . swept into the breach and compelled the whole German line covering the town to retreat in order to avoid encirclement. Reports received in Moscow say that Marshal Timoshenko is battering at the German lines north and south of Kharkov, and although the Germans have brought reinforcements from France by air they have failed to stem the Russian advance. In one engagement, according to the Moscow radio, a German tank brigade lost every one of its tanks.

The “Red Star” reports that another town, so far unnamed, lias Leon successfully attacked by the Russians, who have penetrated to the centre of the town. " '

The “Red Star’’ reports that men and women, armed with pitchforks axes, helped the Russian troops to throw the Germans out of their village on the Kalinin front. The Germans suffered heavy losses. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph”, says the Russians claim that German positions east of Leningrad have been pierced at several points and that, bitter fighting is raging in the Volkhov Valley. Shellfng< by Russian Naval Units. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that light Russian naval units are shelling Germans on the march along the coast roads of the Sea of Azov. Russian naval commandos landed in the rear of the German lines at Mariupol and linked up with guerillas, inflicting considerable havoc on Marshal von Rundstedt’s communications and supplies. <

Striking admissions are made to-day in the German press. Ofte 'newspaper states that the onrush of the enemy must he stopped, no matter when, where or how. >

German newspapers continue, to tell stories of the Russian campaign. One newspaper states: “The German soldiers can scarcely hold their rifles because their fingers are so weak and blistered from the cold.”

Another German newspaper states that the Germans do not under-esti-mate the Russians’ strength or the strength of the Russian equipment. Especially the Russians from Siberia “who do not warm up until it is really cold.”