MOSCOW EXPECTED TO MAKE STRONG STAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 7

MOSCOW EXPECTED TO MAKE STRONG STAND

FORMIDABLE FORTS Snowstorms Impede Nazi Armies * United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 17. It is bold to prophesy about the fate of Moscow, but there seems to be no reason to expect the early fall of the capital. The Times military correspondent, in enunciating this view, says the latest German thrusts still seem to be wedges, and while the forces and fortifications covering Moscow remain unbreached on a comparatively wide front Moscow is not likely to be captured. Moscow's fate depends on whether the Russians can reorganise and hold off thrusts on narrow frontages before the Germans can bring up their main forces. The Times Stockholm correspondent says that in several unspecified places the Germans have penetrated the outermost belt of forts around Moscow. The main body of German forces, is advancing from the north-west, about 50 miles from the outskirts, while, according to a German spokesman, the forces from the south-west are about 65 miles from the centre of Moscow. Russian resistance at both places is tenacious, and the battle is raging fiercely around Rjev. Timoshenko's Tactics Russian resistance is unbroken around Tula, south of Moscow, but the German strength is so great that Marshal Timoshenko's only possible tactics are to retire as slowly as his strength permits, gaining time for reinforcements to arrive and hoping that the present snowstorms will continue, thus impeGing, if not halting the German mechanised forces.

The thrust from Orel, according to the Moscow radio, has slackened after a fierce non-stop eleven-day battle. For the rest nothing very clear except that the battle for Moscow is eclipsing in its scale, duration and ruthlessness anything in history, and the ferocity of the overwhelmingly powerful German onslaught is forcing the defenders back step by step.

The German authorities believe that the thrust through Kaluga, south-south-west of Moscow, will be directed towards the important industrial towns of Serpukhov and Kolomna, the capture of which would not only deprive Moscow of considerable munitions but would also cut the two main railways radiating south-south-west from Moscow, and would be a large step towards the capital's encirclement. It is not expected that the present surge will be able to carry to Moscow, and German spokesmen issue a warning that the early capture of Moscow is not to be expected, because a deep zone of formidable and artfully contrived strong points remain to be overcome, and this zone is defended desperately, by the still well-equipped remnants of Marshal Timoshenko's great armies. . Difficulties of Encirclement - If the Germans intend the encirclement of Moscow—and a frontal assault would be a most costly operation—the left wing of von Bock's armies may be expected to drive toward the famous leather town of Kimry, which would be a halfway house for attacking the Moscow-Archangel railway, but that is a long way, and though the defenders do not equal those at the western approaches to Moscow they are very great.

The German arc around Moscow at present is scarcely one-third of a circle. The Germans will probably continue theii 4 bloody thrusts on the front until the incipient circles of the circumference are much smaller.

The Russians in the regions of Mariupol, on the north of the Sea of Azov, and at Kharkov, are standing their ground.

Leningrad continues to make important progress towards loosening von Leeb's already weakened grip, but nothing yet snows that the successes there are sufficient to affect the Moscow operations.