DESTRUCTION OF GREAT DAM

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23414, 22 August 1941, Page 7

DESTRUCTION OF GREAT DAM

Reported Soviet Action

At Dnieproges

“DNIEPER BELOW KIEV A SWIRLING FLOOD”

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPTBIOHT.) (Received August 22,1,30 a.m.) • LONDON, August 21.

An unconfirmed report says that Marshal Budenny’s engineers, operating under the cover of darkness, have dynamited and utterly destroyed the gigantic Lenin-Dnieproges dam at Zaporozhe, on which depends the whole industrial district of the central Ukraine.

The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that Marshal Budenny, after a personal telephone call from M. Stalin, took this desperate step, which will have an immense strategical effect on the southern battle fields.

Allied circle? in Stockholm attach very great importance to the news that the Russians have deliberately wrecked this mighty barrage.

The Russians, in the event of a possible retreat, have thus ensured that not a particle of the Ukraine’s precious industries will fall into German hands in working or workable order.

Zaporozhe means “beyond the rapids,” and the whole of the upper Dnieper as far as Kiev will now be converted into a swirling flood unnavigable by boats, The German forces are in deadly peril of being swept away.

The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Mail” reports that before blowing up the dam Marshal Budenny told M. Stalin by telephone from his headquarters at Kiev that he had brought nearly 500,000 men across the Dnieper. “Good, then blow up the dam,” ordered M. Stalin.

The dam, begun in 1929, took four years to build. It was the greatest piece of engineering in Russia and is justly considered one of the world’s most impressive engineering masterpieces.

Engineers first wrecked the machinery, operating the barrage and then dynamiters laid charges at the base of the dam. A series of dull explosions followed. Then, with a mighty swish millions of tons of pent-up water burst through, carrying off masses of masonry in spray hundreds of feet high.

German troops, fleeing Russian peasants, and straggling Soviet soldiers trying to gain the river’s eastern banks are believed to have been engulfed.

From now on the Soviet must largely depend on new industries established in the Urals.

JUGOSLAVS IN

REVOLT

DISORDERS SAID TO BE SPREADING

INSURGENTS* CONTROL OF MONTENEGRO .

LONDON, August 20. In spite of ruthless reprisals, the revolt against the Nazi invaders is spreading throughout Jugoslavia, reports the Istanbul correspondent of "The Times.”

The Germans have now issued a proclamation giving an amnesty to those persons taking refuge in the forests if they return within eight days. At the same time they are warning recalcitrant? that they will be treated as outlaws and that measures will be taken against thfir families if they refuse. '• The insurgents are masters of practically the whole pf Montenegro. They have established their own government and appointed mayors and other officials, and are even issuingpassports under the name “Free Montenegro.”

The Bulgarians are carrying put a

ruthless “Bulgarianisation” of Greek Thrace. All Greek immigrants who have settled there from Anatolia after the exchange of populations have been chased from their homes and sent to Salonika. Their houses, cattle, and belongings have been given to Bulgarians. One hundred and forty villages with a population of 60,000 are affected.

Coal Shortage In Eire.-—The coal shortage in Eire >is so serious that the Government is planning community food kitchens. Not a single ton of household coal has reached Eire from Britain in the last two months, Dublin is planning food kitchens to supply 500.00Q meals a day at 6d each.—Dublin, August 20.

Strike in Detroit.—ln spite of a recent agreement substantially improving wages and working conditions, tram and bus operators in Detroit, went on strike. Seven hundred and fifty thousand workers in huge defence industries are left without transport to their jobs. The dispute was caused by rivalry between thg American Federation pf Labour and the Congress of Industrial August 20.

Health of Hitler and Ooering.—The Berlin radio in reply to “senseless, fabricated reports,” states that Herr Hitler and Reichsmarshal Goering are csnjoying the best of health and are watching their war plans being carried out.—London, August 20.