GERMAN GRIP ON LENINGRAD

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23541, 20 January 1942, Page 5

GERMAN GRIP ON LENINGRAD

“Chain Weakened To Breaking Point” SOVIET PRESSURE INCREASES (Received January 19, 10.10 p.m.) (U.P.A.) LONDON, January 18. The Russians have managed to weaken to breaking point one link of the Gorman chain round Leningrad, apparently between the MoscowLeningrad railway and SchluosselburjZ. but they have not yet managed to break through in strength, says the Stockholm correspondent of The Times." . The fighting here is very seveio, he adds. The Germans are loath to relinquish their hold on Schluesselbuig, although remarks made by military circles in Berlin suggest that the grip on that town may already be slackening. Fighting is frequently reported on Lake Ladoga’s ice, but it is too early to regard a German withdrawal fiom Schluesselburg as certain. The raising of the siege of Leningrad will be a major German defeat, the correspondent declares, which no talk about withdrawal to winter quarters could disguise. Large-scale operations are developing in the Ukraine and the Russians are progressing slowly but steadily m the Crimea, where reinforcements continue to land each day. Tiie correspondent adds lhat theie is no question of the early meeting of General Zhukov's arms round Mozhaisk since the arm tips are still 2(W miles apart, but each is beginning seriously to threaten the remaining two railways radiating westwards from Moscow now under German control. The loss of either would seriously hinder the mobility of the Germans falling back, thus increasing the possibility of an enormous German disVhe Stockholm correspondent of the ‘‘Daily Telegraph" says that armoured units of General Belov’s Soviet Guards have gained a foothold in the eastern suburbs of Orel. Fighting is raging along both sides of the Oka river, where it cuts through the outskirts of Orel. The Germans are desperately resisting. Orel was made the principal German supply base for the southern thrust against Moscow, and its fall will almost certainly compel the Germans lo fall back on a broad front to Bryansk. The correspondent adds that the Russians. in recapturing Lotoshino and Shakhovskaya, near Volokolamsk, annihilated a German regimeftt and destroyed many tanks. The 23rd German Infantry Division lost more than 1500 dead.

WEAPONS FOE RUSSIA

BRITISH WORKERS’ PLEDGE CALL FOR UNPARALLELED EFFORT (8.0. W.) RUGBY, January 18. The biggest meeting of trade union delegates ever held in Britain gave a tumultuous ovation to the members of the Russian trade union delegation in the Albert Hall. The conference passed a resolution endorsing the British-Soviet eightpoint trade union declaration of October 26, and also demanding maximum production. Some 700.000 organised British workers were represented by delegates of both sexes present at the gathering. Mr Arthur Deakin. making the chairman's speech, warned the meeting against complacency, and said: “We must develop in this country production the like of which has never been seen in the industrial history of this country, and we must forge the weapons which the British trade unions are pledged to give the Soviet Union.” Mine. Nikolayeva, secretary of the All-Union Council of Soviet Trade Unions, speaking in Russian, said that she brought brotherly greetings from the trade unions of her country, and wished the delegates the fullest success and victory in the fight against the common enemy. Germany, she added, thought she could finish the Soviet in six to eight weeks, and in that time would reach the Urals. The whole world could see that that insane idea of the German bandits had met with uttermost defeat. They had been completely frustrated. They had wanted a lightning war and they had got it. The Soviet could not be defeated. The German murderers had met their doom. She gave many instances of German atrocities, and said that history had pronounced its judgment on these murderers. This judgment would be carried out by the Soviet people together with all freedom-loving peoples of the world. GOEBBELS GIVES AN ASSURANCE BERLIN. January 18. Goebbcls. the German Propaganda Minister, in a speech referred to the “moral peril'’ that threatened the Reich until the German Army dealt a counter-blow against Russia. “It has become u political truism for Germans not to raise the question of when tiie war will end.” he .said. “We have every reason for satisfaction in Hie development so fur. for never have our chances been so favourable, and never, therefore, lias it been so worth while to throw in the slakes. “Germany. Italy, and the nations grouped round the Axis arc aware ol the greatness of the hour, which demands the last ounce from us, but also offers Germany the greatest gifts it has to give."