GREAT BATTLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 7

GREAT BATTLE

UNABATED VIOLENCE Advance To Leningrad Seems • To Be Held British OlTlcial Wireless. Rec. 2 p.m. RUGBY, July 22. The great battle between the Germans and Russians, in which the opposing armies are wrestling in fighting zones of great depth, continues with unabated violence. It is considered by military circles in London that certain developments now clear are as follows:— (1) The German advance from Pskov towards Leningrad seems to 'be held up by the Russians. (2) The Russians seem to be putting up fierce resistance to the Germans endeavouring to advance on both flanks of Smolensk. It is still uncertain whether the Germans have occupied the city but it is possible that German detachments are fighting beyond it to the east, although the main supporting forces are still doing their best to break through on the flanks. (3) The Germans seem to be making an advance in Kiev direction by a thrust which is developing down the right bank of the Dnieper which will be watched carefully as its success might endanger the Russian forces in the Bessarabian sector. The morning Russian communique states: "During the night of July 21-22 stubborn fighting took place in the Pskov, Polotsk. Nevel, Smolensk. Novograd-Volynsk directions. On other directions and sectors of the front there were no major fighting operations. Our air force was active in destroying a mechanised unit of the enemy. According to preliminary data our air force destroyed in aerial combat yesterday 32 enemy planes. Our losses were eight." There have been no new German claims, and in a broadcast from Berlin a high German officer admitted that the effectiveness of Russian guerilla fighters made it difficult to maintain communications. German supply columns moving up made a good visible target. The ruthless devastation of the country by the Russians had also stemmed the advance.

The Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says Marshal Timoshenko on Sunday dislodged German panzer forces from the precarious foothold in the outskirts of Smolensk which they had won on Friday. According to reliable sources a big battle continues west of Smolensk on both sides of the main railway from Warsaw to Moscow. It is reported from New York that General Rommel, commander of the Germans in North Africa, has been recalled to Germany to collaborate with General List in directing the Russian campaign, according to private advice received from Europe of a "shake-up" in the German Army. The heads of the High Command. Field-Marshal von Keitel and FieldMarshal von Brauchitsch, are said to have been relegated to the background because of the poor progress of the German forces in Russia. "The Times" recalls the broadcast from Moscow, based on information from Berne, that Goering has been disgraced, that several generals have been removed from their posts, and that a number of high officers have committed suicide.