SUNG BLOW TO NAZIS IN UKRAINE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 287, 4 December 1941, Page 7

SUNG BLOW TO NAZIS IN UKRAINE

SOVIEr STRATEGY

German Army Chief Rushes To Broken Front U.P.A. and British Wireless. Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 3. The Germans are trying to rush up reinforcements to Mariupol, west of Taganrog, but they are in danger of being cut off. General Schwoedler was protecting von Kleist's left flank, but a sudden series of blows from the north-east has forced him back and smashed his four divisions, including a crack mountain corps. Thus von Rundstedt's entire' force in the south-eastern Ukraine is now in a dangerous position.

According to a message from Stockholm General von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army, has flown from Hitler's headquarters to the Ukraine with orders to halt Marshal Timoshenko's counter-offensive.

German pioneer troops are sowing vast minefields at the eastern approaches of Mariupol. The Daily Express correspondent in Stockholm, referring to General Brauchitsch's flight to the Ukraine, suggests that ne will completely overhaul the German strategy in the south. Nazis Canght in Rostov The people of Rostov are now returning to the city, crossing the Don on icefloes, carrying their luggage, filing through the battle-scarred streets and inspecting the damage. There were emotional scenes as people embraced Red Army soldiers, giving them presents of bread, sugar •nd cigarettes. Scores of German storm troopers, officers of the Gestapo and men who had not received Von Kleist's order to flee, were found hiding in basements. The Berlin correspondent of *th 6 Stockholm Dagens Nyheter reports «iat the Germans are rushing reinforcements to Libya from the Ukraine. This may be one of the reasons for the recent Russian success at Rostov.

The German High Command's statement that the Russian population took the offensive against the rear of the German positions at Rostov, contrary to international law, is thoroughly stupid and false," said the Soviet spokesman, M. Lozovsky. "These lamentations are a foreboding of the fate awaiting the Germans in our towns and villages. The owner of a house is entitled to kill armed bandits who penetrate his house." Ebb and Flow in Centre On the central front the Russians strongly counter-attacked in the Maloyaroslavets area and pressed back the enemy in a southerly direction. They recaptured several inhabited places. However, the Germans elsewhere occupied new positions after suffering heavy casualties.

The latest Soviet communique states that near Moscow 17 German aircraft were shot down in the latest fighting. In the Mojaisk sector fierce fighting is going on, particularly at a point between two rivers where the enemy threw into the battle two infantry divisions and a great number of tanks. Bloody fighting continues. The enemy, ignoring his losses, is attempting to reach the Soviet rear. Red Army infantry, having repelled during the day two enemy tank attacks in the face of numerical superiority, were forced to leave a village.

In the Maloyaroslavets sector during the last 24 hours no important changes took place. In one sector a village was taken by the Germans, but an hour later Russian troops recaptured it. Red Guard cavalry units are continuing to develop successfully a counter-advance in the region "K." Despite enemy resistance, Russian cavalry captured several villages. Another cavalry unit, having annihilated one infantry company, took four villages and reached the approaches of a railway station. Russian units on the left flank are successfully pressing back the enemy.