PRESSURE KEPT UP

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 7, 3 October 1941, Page 7

PRESSURE KEPT UP

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received October 2, 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 1. The Russians are continuing their counter-attacks in the Leningrad area. It is reported from Stockholm that Russian tanks, attacking to the east of the city, recaptured a large town, and that the Germans have also been hard pressed in other sectors of the Leningrad front. The “Daily Mail’s” Stockholm correspondent says a drive by the Russians at Kolpino was the strongest of four thrusts which forced back the Germans in confusion. Simultaneously the German right wing was subjected to very great pressure to prevent the dispatch of reinforcements to Kolpino. The Russians penetrated so far in the Kolpino sector that all the German troops to the east as far as Shlusselburg have been forced to retreat. Troops of the Leningrad garrison joined up with outside units of Marshal Voroshilov’s forces and reopened the railway to Moscow. The Germans halted the Russian counter-attack only by rushing up fresh German motorized divisions and strong formations of divebombersi The correspondent adds: “To the south-east and east of Leningrad General von Leeb now finds himself back in the position he was in early last month. According to the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent in Stockholm the Russians are following up their attack round Kolpino by a general counter-offensive in all sectors of the Leningrad front.

The attacks at Kolpino, this correspondent says, were preceded by a tremendous artillery barrage, in which heavy guns of a Soviet warship participated, after which powerful forces of the heaviest and newest tanks turned out by Leningrad’s shockworkers drove out the Germans headlong from their prepared position. The opposing forces were for some time locked so tightly together that neither sides could use its artillery for fear of slaughtering its own men. This correspondent comments: “The Russian victory is new and encouraging support for the view which is widely held In Stockholm that the Germans will not capture Leningrad this year.” Four Areas Occupied. Moscow radio, referring to these thrusts, says that “four more areas were occupied round Leningrad. The Germans lost 2000 dead in one village in two days’ fighting and 600 in another.” A Helsinki message says that the position of the Germans in the Kolpino district has become serious, especially in fierce fighting at other points on the Leningrad front, and also because the Russian air force recently has been very active. Very fierce air battles have been fought above and round the main battrefield. Other enemy reports express surprise at the speed and daring of the Russian tanks, adding that after making admittedly important progress they have now been checked in extensive German minefields, although it is scarcely likely that the Germans would mine an area extensively unless they feared being forced on to the defensive. Berlin radio claimed that Russian troops which were again attempting to force a landing on the coast of Lake Ladoga south-east of Shusselburg were repulsed with heavy losses. The Axis-controlled Lahti radio claimed that the Finns have captured Petrozavodsk, on the Leningrad-Mur-mansk railway. The Germans mention strong Russian counter-attacks in the Petrozavodsk region. In the titanic battle for Leningrad the Germans have already lost at least 100,000 killed, wounded, and captured. In the south and south-west approaches alone, according to the first detailed review of the battle, which appears in the “Red Star.” These figures exclude the heavy German losses in Estonia and toward ovogrod. The Germans have also lost in the Leningrad battle 400 tanks, 400 mine-throwers, 846 aeroplanes, and 200 field-guns. The divisions said to have been routed or defeated with very heavy losses are one SS division, one motorized division. the Sth tank division and the 122nd, 191st, and 269th infantry divisions. Central Offensive Broken. The Russians on the central front routed a German infantry division and broke up a German offensive after three days’ fighting, the “Red Star” says. A German communique says: “Offensive operations east of the Dnieper River continue successfully. The Luftwaffe bombed military installations in Moscow on the night of September 30.” The Russian admission that Poltava has been, lost was not unexpected and it does not mark any important change, since the weekend, because the main German forces in this sector were checked in the drive toward Kharkov last week. Moscow radio tonight reported that the first fall of snow on the Ukraine front began yesterday and was continuing. Snow is also falling in Leningrad, where the weather is bad. It is learned in London that the Germans have advanced seven miles south of Perekop on the Crimea isthmus, but they have not succeeded in penetrating the bottleneck leading to the peninsula.