GERMAN DRIVE CUTS RAILWAY TO ODESSA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 187, 9 August 1941, Page 7

GERMAN DRIVE CUTS RAILWAY TO ODESSA

UKRAINE THREAT U.S. Supplies 31 ay Be Rushed Across Arctic U.P.A. aii'i ii •ii.-!:'Wir'-less R6C. 12.30 p.m. ION DON, Aug. 8. Information readmit; London is that there has boon no change on the central and northern parts of the Russian front, but in ihc I kraine there are indicatiuns that the German forces are making more progress south oi Kic\, in a southeasterly direction from RyelayaTserkov, parallel with thwright bank of the Dnieper. The main railway communications between Kiev and Odessa have been already cut, and a new move, which is regarded as a serious threat to the remaining railway running ni.rtli from Odessa, appears to lie aimed at cutting off Odessa and Nikolacv. The loss of these places, however, would not have any serious clhvt <ui the Russian position, whether on land or in the Black Sea. There is no confirmation of the Gertaai. claim to have surrounded Kiev, and it is pointed out that the Dnieper is a very serious obstacle for tanks, being a mile wide below Kiev, with very few bridges. The German claim to have driven a wedge to Kiev at Jitomir is correct, says the Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." but the Russians signally repulsed German tanks which reached the gates of Kiev and delivered six assaults against the immediate defences of the city. Roth subsequent flanking attacks, at Byelayatserkov and Korosten, have been held up. General Budenny still has huge armies intact, with large reserves, ready to oppose any threat to Odessa. It is authoritatively reported from Washington that the lifting of the combat zone around the northernmost tip of Scandinavia is under discussion as a means to get American war supplies to Russia quickly. Offensive Reported Slowed Down The "Daily Telegraph's - ' Stockholm correspondent makes the definite assertion that the third German offensive on the Russian front has been slowed down to a pace which must be causing the German High Command disappointment and anxiety. The correspondent says the Germans still hold the initiative, but there is no diminution in Russian confidence that this latest, German toast will be as efficiently blunted as were the previous ones. Russian dispatches from the front claim that the 20th German Tank Division has been destroyed in an unnamed sector. Onlv '40 tanks escaped in a battle which lasted for several days' and resulted from a Russian counter-attack. A Moscow communique says: "Our troops last night continued "to fight on the Estonian front, and in the regions of Kakisalmi, Smolensk and Byelayatserkov. There have wen no major operations elsewhere." The Berlin communique claims the destruction of an enemy force south-eastwards of I'man. and says over 30,000 prisoners were taken."