NAZI HAMMERING

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 45, 17 November 1941, Page 7

NAZI HAMMERING

Pressure Near Caucasus

LONDON, November 14. The German news agency yesterday said that the Luftwaffe had extended its operations to the foothills of the Caucasus. The raids included Cape Taman, which is on the Russians’ line of retreat from Kerch, and also the oil towns of Anapa and Tuapse, on the Black Sea coast. Anapa is the terminus of the pipeline from Grozny.

The Stockholm correspondent of the ‘•Daily Telegraph” said that the heaviest lighting in Russia continued in the Crimea, where the situation was very grave. Five German divisions were battering the defences of Sebastopol, which was under constant shelling and bombing, and could no longer be regarded as being of much use as a Russian naval base.

Russian forces were nightly crossing Kerch Strait to new, natural, and fortified positions on the Fontan and Tainan Peninsulas. They left sufficient forces to hold the fortresses at Yenikale, Kerch, an'd Takil, which the Germans were hammering with nine infantry divisions, two mechanized divisions, two cavalry brigades, heavy seige guns, and swarms of stukas. The sheer weight of their numbers drove the Russians back to these last defences.

Swedish correspondents in Berlin said that the Germans might attempt to cross the Kerch Straits without waiting for the fall of Kerch itself. The straits constitute an even better rehearsal ground for the crossing of the English Channel than Crete did. It was hinted that the Germans will employ all arms, including a larger number of warships than those outside Germany anticipate. Moscow radio stated yesterday that for a fortnight the situation at Rostov had not changed and the German offensive in the northern Donetz region was being checked.