RZHEV SURROUNDED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 89, 26 January 1942, Page 3

RZHEV SURROUNDED.

GREATER THREAT TO VYAZMA. ENEMY FORCES ENDANGERED. LONDON, January 25. The Soviet advance continues. Today’s Moscow communiqiie again speaks of active operations during last night, and it was announced earlier that several more villages had been recaptured. The Mosecow radio says that Russian forces on the south-western front have advanced 13 miles in the last 24 hours and have recaptured 13 villages. The Germans, with tanks, attempted to counter-attack, but failed. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that Russian forces from Mozhaisk have recaptured Gzhatsk, 35 miles from Vyazma, in spite of stubborn resistance by a German motorised brigade. The Russians found scores of dead in the blazing streets.

This victory, coinciding with the Russian drive southward from the region of Rzhev. may result, he says, in the complete encirclement of the German forces in the Rzliev-Gzhatsk-Vologolamsk triangle. Russian forces from the Rzhev area crossed the Rzhev to Moscow railway near Zubstov a week ago, and after badly mauling General von Strauss’s forces, are now hammering at Schevka, on the RzhevVyazma railway, 45 miles north ol Vvazma.

The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Mail’’ says that Rzhev has been surrounded for 10 days. Russian forces on Friday night wore reported to be storming its inner defences. Five German divisions are holding the town. Rzhev last night was a great sheet of flame as a result of dive-bombing, shell fire, and German demolitions. Dense entanglements of barbed wire, strong pill-boxes, and powerful minefields guard the town, and the defenders are contesting every yard to gain time for the retirement of the central armies. Furious hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets, hand-grenades, and Tommyguns was in progress in the suburbs last night.

The latest reports indicate that the Russians are steadily progressing on the Volkhov front, hammering the rear of the besiegers of Leningrad.

They have established a railway across ihe ice of Lake Ladoga, linking

Leningrad with the railway to Y ologda. . . . The Russians are also maintaining pressure toward Kursk. The Russians assaulting Kharkov have reached the city’s second line of forts, but the strong fortifications necessitate heavy preparation by artillery before the attack can bo continued. In the other Donets sectors the Russians have scored local successes. Russian and German forces are locked in bitter battles round Sebastopol and north-west of Theodosia.