NAZIS IN TRAP

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 182, 3 August 1944, Page 5

NAZIS IN TRAP

MORE THAN 200,000

Germans Evacuating From \ \.'■'■■':.. South Finland 'j ■■ " • _ i N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.. r ßee.,ll : ,a.m. . LONDON, Aug. 2. ■• i Several agencies unconfirmedly report-from Stockholm that German troops which are being evacuated fjforrr south Finland are being shipped to East Prussia. 'Moscow radio said that the Russians have thrown the enemy from KJaplans, which is actually on the coast--of the Gulf of Riga, which means that 'the German armies in Latvia and Estonia are irretrievably cutoff; It is-believed that 23 Ger-man--divisions have been trapped in .these countries. The Germans in ttyis sector,- who ■ are estimated to number more than 200,000, face their biggest encirclement disaster since Stalingrad, when they lost 300,000 Men* ' - 'The'Soviet-Baltic Fleet is re'ported to=be deploying for action to-prevent aii enemy "Dunkirk." earlier message from Moscow stated that overwhelming Russian aEr superiority has freed the Soviet Baltic Fleet for the first time since .th'e .outbreak of war and it can be used to shut the trap completely. . iThe Moscow correspondent of the National . Broadcasting - Company says there is every indication that tlie. Soviet Baltic Fleet is already deploying for action in its first grand-scale operation since the outbreak of the war. The odds are all against a Baltic .Dunkirk. This is! the time and place for the Baltic Fleet to step in. The fleet in the past month has been steadily.extendirig~its operations, harassing German communications, and helping to drive the Luftwaffe from the skies. >TAe Baltic front to-day is beginning to crack and crumble all round the encircled Germans, states Reuters Moscow correspondent. The falj-of Riga may release a landslide ■wßch will send all the remaining Germans in this sector scurrying for ftoeipcrts. . _ .. - .