ADMIRE RUSSIANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 211, 6 September 1941, Page 7

ADMIRE RUSSIANS

LENINGRAD'S STAND

Powerful Unit Of Soviet

Defences

U.P.A. and British Wireless. Rec. Ipm. LONDON, Sept. 5. The greatest admiration is expressed throughout the Press for the magnificent spirit of the people of Leningrad in the face of what is recognised here to be a serious threat to the city. The Germans already have suffered considerable losses, both in men and material, in forcing their way to the outer defences, and clearly they will have to pay a very heavy price indeed for the possession of Russia's second city. Whether they are prepared to accept such sacrifices is not yet clear.

The Manchester Guardian, in describing some of tne difficulties the Germans have met and will continue to meet, says: "The roads are neither many nor good in these regions, and the Germans have been complaining about the mud they find on them. Further, the Germans, like all experienced soldiers, are shy of forests, and Leningrad is girdled with thick forests. Pskov, on the other hand, which the Germans have left behind them, is quite open country. A look at Lakes Ladoga, llmen and Peipus on the map, and their many tributary streams and marshes, shows what bad and cramped campaigning country it is. Once the Germans were held south of Leningrad their position would be dangerous, for, as far as can be seen, they have not pushed far enough eastwards to secure the flank of their thin deep thrust to the city against a counterattack from the Valdai Hills direction."

Leningrad as a prize can be summed up simply, adds the Guardian. The loss of the naval base of Kronstadt, on the island of Kotlin, 30 miles from Leningrad, would mean the end of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Russia's communications with the outside world through the ice-free port of Murmansk would also be gone, for the railway, as well a:®the Baltic-White Sea canal begins at Leningrad. The city has big armament, electrical, chemical and shipbuilding indiftetries, of which the surrender would strip 10 per cent from Russia's total production.

"All day and all night an immense bloody battle is going on," said the deputy-chief of the Soviet Ministry of Information, M. Lozovsky. "The Germans are being held beyond the distant approaches to Leningrad and have suffered heavy losses. Enemy reinforcements are being brought up." M. Lozovsky denied the German claim that the city was surrounded and said its vast network of railways was still open.

Moscow dispatches state that the battlefield is covered with thousands of German dead and wounded, and that Marshal Voroshiloff's troops are reported to have beaten off desperate attempts by three German divisions. The Russians are confident that the enemy will be beaten off, if not bogged by the weather.