HEAVY RAID ON LENINGRAD

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 299, 15 September 1941, Page 7

HEAVY RAID ON LENINGRAD

Still No Significant Land Progress SHREWD COUNTERTHRUST (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 14. Hitler's war against Russia is becoming more and more a race against time. The Germans say that Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev must fall before November 5, because they believe that winter really starts in northern Russia about this date. Germany is using her latest fighter, the Messerschmitt 115, on the Leningrad front, and in spite of heavy rain the air battle continues unceasingly. A Moscow broadcast announced that masses of high-explosive and incendiary bombs are being dropped on the streets of Leningrad, but it says that these methods will never succeed in intimidating the citizens and that the Germans are losing heavily in these attacks. Dispatches from the front yesterday revealed that the Russians have launched a counter-attack which threatens to isolate the German forces besieging Leningrad. ,They are pushing- the Germans back along the Moscow-Latvia railway, 250 miles south of Leningrad. This threat from the south is the reason for General von Leeb’s desperate bid to capture Leningrad within a few days, says “The Times” Stockholm correspondent, but the German commander is bound to be disappointed, because scarcely anywhere are his forces within 20 miles of Leningrad. The Germans cannot maintain the present offensive for long, this correspondent says. They are battling through driving rain and along shell-torn roads under fire from the heavy artillery and thousands of machine-guns concentrated along a vast chain of steel casements and underground fortresses.

Marshal Timoshenko, commanding the central front, has also taken the offensive near the Valdai Hills (to the south of Valdai). Ihe German armies in this» neighbourhood are partly hemmed in by Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland, with the unbeaten forces of Marshal Voroshilov also between the Valdai Hills and the immediate eastern approaches to Leningrad.

Today is the anniversary of Napoleon’s entry into Moscow. His campaign started about the same date in June as Hitler chose for launching his assault, but the Germans are nowhere within 200 miles of the capital. On the central sector, Marshal Timoshenko’s forces astride the Moscow road still maintain the initiative. In the Ukraine the Russians are preparing to meet the new German threat resulting from the capture of Chernigov. Every hill, town and collective farm is being fortified. Two hundred and fifty miles away at Kharkov the inhabitants are being trained in the arts of war. About 20,000 girls are being trained as nurses and 50,000 youths are forming extermination squads, while other battalions of citizens are being taught how to deal with tanks. Behind the German lines Russian guerilla activities are being intensified and there are reports of fresh successes all along the front.

Moscow reports that armoured trains are operating over a vast network of lines, hitting the Finns in the north and the Germans in .the south. They have made devastating attacks, repelling enemy assaults against stations and bridgeheads, and also have smashed tank columns and helped to bottle up the Finns between the lakes north-east of Leningrad. Bryansk Thrust Blunted. A great battle which has been proceeding since the end of August in the Bryansk area is described in an article in the Soviet army newspaper “Red Star.” The writer states that the Germans broke through late in August in the direction of Bryansk, but the Red Army in a counter-attack which was lounched on September 1 routed the 47th and 29th tank corps and the 17th and 18th motorized divisions, mainly in the battle of Troubchevsk (55 miles south-west of Bryansk and 135 miles due east of Gomel). The Germans in this battle lost nearly 10,000 officers and men, more than 260 tanks, GOO vehicles and 100 field guns. The 29th motorized division was also broken up and forced to retreat. Twenty-six towns and villages were recaptured by the advancing Soviet forces. Describing the great part played by the Red Air Force in these battles, the writer says that in the course of a week the Soviet bombers dropped 29,000 bombs. The battle, he says, is still proceeding. The “Red Star” reported that Russian troops have forced a crossing of the lower Dnieper at four places. They have recaptured the island region of Dnepropetrovsk and the village of Olkha. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow says that the German crossing of the river north of the Crimea is not believed to have been made in force. It was learned yesterday that at least seven great battles, raging simultaneously on the Eastern Front, were carrying the war to new heights of intensity and ferocity. The Moscow “Pravda” stated that a large-scale battle was raging in the Polesie area, west of the central front, and that the Germans were sustaining heavy casualties. German commentators are saying that the frozen ground of winter would be better for their tanks than mud. Bucharest Bombed. The latest Moscow communique, after reporting stubborn fighting yesterday, says, “We destroyed on September 11 50 German planes for the loss of 34. We bombed Bucharest on the night of September 12. All the planes returned. Speedboats of the northern fleet sank a patrolsbip and a large German transport.” Last night’s communique stated: “During September 12 our troops engaged the enemy in fierce battles along the entire front. After stubborn fighting we evacuated Chernigov on the Biver Desna (between Kiev and Gomel). “On September 10, 100 German planes were destroyed in aerial combats and on enemy aerodromes. We lost 32 planes “On September 11 German planes repeatedly attempted to approach Leningrad. Every time they were repulsed by out fighters and our ground defences. At about 11 p.m. a few German planes succeeded in flying over Leningrad at a great height, dropping high-explosive bombs. Fires which broke out in dwelling-houses were extinguished. According to incomplete data, 11 German planes were shot down over the approaches of Leningrad and the town itself on September 11.”

The Germans have issued no new claims of progress, x