Russians Ready for Counter Offensives

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 170, 21 July 1941, Page 7

Russians Ready for Counter Offensives

Although the Berlin propaganda machine is churning out a stream of extravagant claims and promises, Axis diplomats at Istanbul are more cautious. They estimate that at least 4,000,000 of the best equipped and mechanised Russian troops have not yet been engaged and are being held strategically behind the lines in preparation for counter offensives. The diplomats also admit that the Russian air force is fighting hard. The Rome radio has announced that the death penalty has been decreed for cornering food with the object of raising prices. The penalty for selling higher than the controlled prices is three years, and fines ranging from three to 30,000 liras. Alliance 'With Czechs The Moscow communique reports that stubborn fighting has .continued in the direction or Polotsk and Neval, Smolensk and Novograd Volynsk. Nothing of significance has occurred in other sectors. The Soviet air force on July 18 destroyed 71 enemy planes in combat, not 32, as previously reported. The Rome radio said Kishenev, in Bessarabia, is in flames, three days' efforts to quencn the outbreak having been unsuccessful. The Russians set fire to every house. The Moscow radio says the Czechoslovak agreement rings the deathknell for Hitler. The ancient friendship between the two peoples is now sealed in the common task of liberating Czechoslovakia.