OUTER DEFENCE POSTS HOLD

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 20, 18 October 1941, Page 9

OUTER DEFENCE POSTS HOLD

No German Progress To Moscow HEAVY LOSSES ON both sides (ißy Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, October 17. While the battle for Moscow continues with mounting ferocity, there is no news of any substantial German progress in the past 24 h ° Ur ßenorts from the front indicate that the Germans are still battering at the chain of defence posts about 60 miles outside the city. ..... The ■ midday Moscow communique says that during the night Russian troops engaged the enemy along the entire front fighting being particularly stubborn in various sectors of the central front. It adds that both sides are buffering heavy losses. The communique also speaks of successes by guerrilla forces fight ing in defence of the capital. In the Kalinin district these guerrillas killed 1000 German soldiers and destroyed ammunition loiries, bridges and pontoons. An entire column of German lorries rushing up with fuel for the Orel front was destroyed. In a description of the tank battle raging all day long outside Moscow, the correspondent of “Ivestia” says that one German tan v column striking along a Ibroad highway was dispersed and battered by Russian tanks. The enemy flinched before the fierce onslaught and sought refuge in nearby woods. The Russians pursued them.and wipe them out. In another battle the Germans tried to destroy eight Russian tanks buried in the ground as forts, but were routed In this engagement nearly 600 German officers and men were killed or wounded. . . , . . . . . At Leningrad the Russians are continuing their ferocious counterattacks. The Leningrad radio says the Germans have been thrown out from another fortified village. Snow and thick fog envelopes e Clty 'There is no confirmation from Russian sources of the Rumanian and German claim to have entered Odessa.

LONDON, October 16. Moscow was not anywhere near en- j circled and there was plenty of room for Moscow civilians or the army to move eastward, said a German spokesman in Berlin tonight. Moscow radio said the Russians were continuing vigorous counterattacks on the Leningrad front and had forced the Germans to retreat from a fortified village. Snow is falling in Leningrad, where there is also a thick fog. The Finns pushing northward along the railway skirting Lake Onega claim to have reached Kindopoja. Moscow claims that Soviet motor torpedo-boats sank two of three enemy transports in the Gulf of Finland.. A Hungarian communique issued in Budapest claimed the capture of “further imptfrtant points’’ on the Donets River, and added unfavourable weather and damage to communications are slowing down the defeat of the enemy westward of the Donets River. A Russian communique states: “During October 15 36 German aircraft were destroyed. Our losses were 11 planes. According to incomplete data, nine enemy aircraft were brought down on the outskirts of Moscow during October 15.” Russian Admission. It is uncertain whether the Russian admission that the Germans have penetrated their defences on the central front refers to some place nearer on the Vyazma-Moscow road, but the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says there is no definite evidence that the Russians have yet yielded further ground under pressure from Vyazma or Bryansk, though the Germans claim that their offensive thereabouts has gathered new strength from the release of forces by the extinction of large Russian pockets . It is now practically certain that Marshal Timoshenko was obliged to weaken the men and materials defending Kalinin (Tver) when pressure from Vyazma and Bryansk required him immediately to bring up any possible reinforcements! Taking an obvious risk, he succeeded in stemming the tide against his centre, probably hopng that more distant reserves would arrive in time to secure the depleted sector further to the north. This explains why the Germans have been able to advance so rapidly against Kalinin since the weekend. Equal Cliauces. The same correspondent says that the fate of Moscow is hanging in the balance and that the situation is perhaps more critical than ever, but sober observers consider that as long as the spirit of the Russian troops remains as high as it is at present, the chances are still about equal. Commentators recall the similar appearance of German invincibility in the spring of 1018, which collapsed when their opponents persistently resisted and stubbornly ref used to recognize the enemy’s invincibility. To this should be added the declaration of the war correspondent of the “Pravda”: “Our men fighting on the central front have one word only, ‘Moscow.’ It rings like a call to determination and unparalleled bravery. Like a pledge, it unites all those m the front line.” , It was announced from Helsinki that Finnish armoured units operating north-east of Petrozavodsk occupied Gramoskoye and took many prisoners, Including the staff of the Russian 7th Army. The commander, General Avakumoff, however, escaped in a car. The Finns are also stated to have occupied Mundjarvi, 35 miles from the frontier. The Russians had set the town on fire.