RED ARMY ATTACKING ON WHOLE FRONT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 181, 2 August 1941, Page 7

RED ARMY ATTACKING ON WHOLE FRONT

CONFIDENCE HIGH Ukraine Commander Calls For Great Effort Pnited Press Af^nrintion. —Copyright. Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 1. Military authorities arc unanimous that the crucial tost in the RussoGerman conflict will come in the next few days. The British United Press Berlin correspondent reports that German officials admit the Russians are counter-attacking heavily on all fronts from Lake Ladoga to the Black Sea. The Berlin radio has admitted that the Finns are meeting strong Russian counter-attacks on the Karelian front. While there is mounting gloom among the German populace, the Russian, leaders are supremely confident. Marshal Budenny. Soviet Commander in the Ukraine, is appealing for intensified guerilla warfare. He declared: "The hour of victory is at hand." A German communique states that fighting on the eastern front is progressing favourably. Swa.ving Smolensk Front While the Moscow night communique reports that the Germans were thrown back in the Smolensk direction by counter-attacks, it would be premature to suggest thut Smolensk itself had been relieved from pressure or that thu enemy had been thrown back any considerable distance. Moreover, the extent of the Russian success is unknown in the absence of information regarding the exact point where the Russian thrust was made, since the Germans claim the virtual encirclement of Smolensk. An expert on the Russian language points out that while the word "direction" appears in Moscow's translated communiques instead of "sector" or "region." the actual Russian word used is one which is more dynamic and is lamely translated into English as "direction." The Russian word indicates back and forth. The Soviet Air Force, in co-opera-tion with land troops, inflicted blows on motor and mechanised units, infantry and artillery, and also bombed enemy motor columns carrying fuel and material. "Germans Fought To Standstill" Military authorities in Moscow declared to-day that the Germans have been fought to a standstill, and are wearing themselves out in futile assaults, says the Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Mail." The Red Army spokesman, General Chodin, said: "The Germans lost the war in the first few days. Millions of soldiers and thousands of tanks and aeroplanes have taken up their positions, and the Red Army's resistance is passing from the defensive to the offensive." The war has resolved itself into a battle of attrition, with the Red Army's masses slowly sapping the strength of the Germans, according to observers in Moscow. No territorial change is reported from the Arctic to the Black Sea. JFhe Stockholm correspondent of "The Times" says the Germans claim to have begun exterminating the Russians westward of Lake Peipus, but nothing indicates that ttey are making appreciable propss; indeed, the "swoop against Leningrad" has lost its impetus, and so Has the attempt to reach Moscow via Smolensk. Neither plan apparently has been abandoned, and the wrmans are collecting their strength for new assaults, but ex- .#"» doubt whether the impending wd German offensive—although it will .be .backed by the desperate conviction that they must now do or die -Tj*? have su . ch weight as its pre--2?« rs > owin £ to the losses of supplies and the battering the German manpower has received. Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press reports that the aS?i launc hed 42 assaults against Smolensk without success.

Russian Strength Admitted mi^ m % Propagandists are now adRrt 1 £ eir earlier claims that HgJ , ** Air Force had been annihiAi£L^ ere somewhat premature." ttieiS^ 1 military doctor, talking on SL£ erlin radio - admitted that the & an ,. casualties have been so HP , , that Ukrainian women and theri™, temg employed to assist am iSL mai l medi cal staff. "There is hSi Ssant ? ow of wounded to our ?™ s - and all our field hospitals m^ erc . ro^ ded '" he said - The fin? 1 . st .aff is totally insufficient, Si",» impossible for us to deal **"! all the cases." saw ?t,S°? ei News Ageney to-day tor *2£ Ja P ane se diplomats arrivrL£2 ♦ Moscow reported heavy movements on the Sf ria V railway towards the Ssector towards the Far