RENEWED EFFORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 10, 11 July 1941, Page 5

RENEWED EFFORT

BLOW AT LENINGRAD

VERY BITTER BATTLE

HEROIC RESISTANCE

LONDON, July 9. Some of the bloodiest fighting of the w»r is now going on in the northerly sectors of the RussianGerman front as a result of an accelerated German effort to overwhelm Leningrad and all territory to the north of it. The Finnish radio declares that German and Russian forces on the south-east frontier of Estonia are locked in the bitterest battle of the war between Ostrov and Lake ' Peipus. The Russians are resisting heroically, and German reports refer to huge Soviet forces being flung .against the advancing Germans. The Stockholm correspondent of "The Times" says tonight that the most trust- J worthy news shows that though the; Germans penetrated very deeply in a j direct line towards Moscow, they have not increased their penetration appreciably since the end of last week. The most advanced points are now approximately on a line from Polotsk to Borigov, just inside the real Russian frontier, which leaves the Stalin de- • fence? scarcely touched. SUCCESS AGAINST NAZI TANKS. Tank, thrusts 9 have penetrated still deeper, but even the. Germans" r do not claim that these have maintained their positions, the correspondent says. Their repulse and effective isolation or destruction in this area is perhaps unique, as efforts to cope with such tank penetration in the west and elsewhere have never succeeded. It is idle to pretend that the advance on. Smolensk is not serious, but the fact emerges that the Germans attempted and failed to break through in this sector with their first general onslaught - It is generally believed that the main Stalin defences are manned by firstclass troops who are all fresh, not having participated in the frontier fighting except in the Minsk and. Ostrov sectors. If this is true, the Germans,

have a very stiff task ahead, as the Russians have greater reinforcing facilities than the Germans for the impending new struggles. Officials in Berlin declare that the war is on the second decisive stage. The Russians, they say, have taken up new strategic positions, and the Germans are seeking to encircle these main Soviet armies. There appears to be some slackening in the fighting on the central and southern fronts, and the Berlin spokesman said that reports of fierce battles raging along the whole front were untrue. BATTLE FOR AIR SUPERIORITY. Both the Russian and German air forces continue to concentrate mostly on objectives close to the lines, though it is officially announced in : Helsinki that at least 17 persons were killed and 156 wounded in an air raid on Helsinki this morning. The Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Express" says that the battle for Moscow has become a battle for air superiority, with both sides flinging, in all their available air might. A de-