FLEET CRIPPLED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 255, 28 October 1942, Page 3

FLEET CRIPPLED

IN NAZI HARBOUR

Scheme To Take Kronstadt Foiled By Soviet United Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 27. The Russian Baltic fleet has smashed a major German attempt to capture the Kronstadt naval base The Russians attacked and crippled the German invasion fleet before it could leave its home port. A Stockholm report says the Germans had assembled barges and landing craft for the attack. Russian cruisers and destroyers, supported by bombers, blasted hundreds of barges massed in an unidentified Nazi-occupied harbour in the Gulf of Finland. The Daily Telegraph Stockholm correspondent says the German operation was prepared by Admiral Carls, planner of the invasion of Norway and of the unattempted invasion of Britain. The Germans were determined to take Kronstadt because the submarines operating from this base had inflicted such heavy losses on German troop transports in the Baltic Sea. M. Paspeloff, a member of the committee of the Communist party, broadcasting to the Red Army, said: "The Soviet Union, through its struggle, has earned world-wide sympathy and love from all progressive and honest people. Friendly relations have been strengthened between the Soviet Union and England and America. The opening of a second front in Europe," he added, "would further strengthen our fighting collaboration with our Allies."