RACE FOR VYAZMA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 87, 23 January 1942, Page 3

RACE FOR VYAZMA

THE MAIN GERMAN FORCES. WAR OF MOVEMENT STARTED. PTGTTTTNG NEAR MOZHATSK. (United Press Association—Copyright.. LONDON. Jan. 22, Tho Stockholm correspondent of the ‘"Daily Telegraph” says that a strong German rearguard is fighting advanced Russian motorised units outside Borodino. The battle field is now 12 miles west of Mozhaisk. The main German forces are engaged in a race with the pursuing Russians for Vyazma. Jf the Russians win the race, 100,000 Germans will he cut off, hut the whole district between Mozhaisk and Vyazma is strongly fortified.

Another correspondent suggests that with the freeing of Mozhaisk a Russian Avar of movement along the Avliole of the Moscow front is now in full SAving. With the temperature at 30 degrees below zero, he says, the Russians are driving back the enemy along the road to Smolensk; which runs through Borodino and Vyazma. Quoting Russian sources, another correspondent says that the Russians are preparing to launch fresh troops in a. new offensive Avhich will give the Germans no time to dig in. The Russians have gh'en no detailed news in the last 24 hours about the fighting* on the Eastern Front. To-day’s Soviet communique simply reports jjctive operations against the enemy, but last night’s communique claimed further Russian advances and the recapture of several more inhabited places.