SOVIET LINE NOW STRAIGHT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 9, 6 October 1941, Page 7

SOVIET LINE NOW STRAIGHT

No Encirclement Danger POSITION IN MAIN SECTORS (British Official Wireless.) (Received October 5, 7.5 pan,) RUGBY, October 4. The Russian front line from the Baltic to the Black Sea is now more or less straight. The absence of major salients means that no Russian forces are in' danger of encirclement unless the Germans make new thrusts and these will involve frontal attacks. In Finland, in a successful counterattack the Rusisans have thrown the Germans back to the west bank of the River Litha. The situation at Leningrad shows little change. Most of the island of Osel is in the hands of the Germans, who have also landed on Dago, In the central sector there is uo change apart from a small German advance in the Demyansk sector. Immediately east of Kiev organized Russian resistance has ended. Further east, where the German pressure is increasing, .Russian resistance appears to be stubborn and effective. The Germans, however, have reached Poltava and Novomoskovsk. On the two approaches to the Crimea, the German frontal attacks are meeting with fierce resistance and have so far failed to reach the mainland, though they are now believed to have almost readied the southern extremity of the isthmus of Perekop. Large counter-attacks by the Russians are proceedings from the north-east—-the general direction being from Melitpol—with the object of relieving the pressure, but the results are not jet known. Russian reinforcements are also believed to be on the way to relieve the pressure. Odessa continues to hold out.