MAJOR OPERATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 88, 24 January 1942, Page 5

MAJOR OPERATION.

FOR RELIEF OF LENINGRAD. PRESSURE NORTH AND WEST LONDON, January 22. The Russians appear to be developing two serious major operations between Moscow and. Leningrad, f The Stockholm "correspondent of “The Times” says that they are first exerting close pressure toward Leningrad on the Volkhov front, from the Moscow-Leningrad railway to Novgorod. They are simultaneously attempting a westward drive across the frozen lakes in the Lake Seliger region. The first thrust is aimed at throwing off the German stranglehold on Leningrad. The second, more ambitious, is intended to defeat the whole German northern wing by striking across the frozen Kholm marshes to the LatvianEstonian border, compelling a general German withdrawal from the Leningrad province to avoid encirclement. The accomplishment of the second operation would require such tremendous forces of men and material that the Germans appear to believe that the Lake Seliger drive is more probably a local diversion which also supports the Russian operations on the central front.

Wednesday’s severe fighting between Novgorod and the Leningrad-Moscow railway appears to be the heaviest this year, foreshadowing a renewed attempt in the near future to relieve Leningrad. The activity of the Leningrad forces in cleaning up the Germans in the immediate neighbourhood of the city endorses the belief that the garrison is preparing for an assault, concerted with attacks from outside. The defenders of Leningrad and Sebastopol are hitting back at the enemy. Sorties by both garrisons are admitted in Berlin.