Latest Nazi Thrusts

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 38, 13 August 1941, Page 7

Latest Nazi Thrusts

NO APPARENT PROGRESS

LONDON, August 12. Fierce fighting continues along the entire front in Russia, and the Germans seem to have made no progress in their thrusts on Leningrad and in the Ukraine. Making their most desperate push in the Russian war, the Germans claim tonight to have reached points on the Black Sea coast. The latest Russian communique, on the other hand, gives no hint of any serious break in the Russian line or of any considerable German advance in this or any other sector of the front. There is no doubt that both Kiev and Odessa are in some danger from the German attacks, but there is nothing to support the claim that the Germans are only 40 miles from Nikolaiev, which is 80 miles north-east of Odessa. Informed circles in London say it is possible that a small enemy armoured force has reached a point some 50 to 70 miles from Nikolaiev, but there is no indication that aiiy substantial infantry units have broken through.

Neutrals in Berlin believe that the | Russians are making an orderly. | large-scale withdrawal in the Ukraine, and it is pointed out that if the retreat remairis orderly the Germans will have failed in their, main objective, namely, the crippling! of Marshal Budenny's army. The defenders <of Kiev are standing firm, and today's communique from Moscow reports fighting a long way south of the city, and at Iskorost, to the north. The Germans claimed the capture of Iskorost two days ago, but the Russians have now described how their tanks, artillery, and aircraft routed a big German tank column in this area. The Moscow communique mentions fighting in the area of Kexholm, far away to the north, and at Soltsy, 125 miles due south of Leningrad, and in the Smolensk sector. Axis sources report that neutral journalists have visited Smolensk under German guidance to see for themselves that the city has fallen and is in ruins. A Moscow message, on the other hand, quotes private reports from the front that the 26-day

I battle for Smolensk continues and that yesterday the Russians threw the Germans back some distance. Today brings a great spate of news of air fighting from German sources. The messages may be intended to cover the disappointment at the progress of the land operations. The official German news agency states that, the Luftwaffe has intervened in the battles in the Ukraine and destroyed 180 planes and many tanks, but the Germans make no mention of the Russian success in destroying the gr'eat £1,000,000 railway bridge over the Danube at Cernavoda, on the line running from Constanza to Bucharest. The Finns also report attacks^ by Russian aircraft on a number of towns in Finland, A Swedish newspaper correspondent says that at some parts of the front the Russians are starting fires in the forests by firing shells filled with petrol which burst 200ft above the trees. According to the official Italian news agency, the Italian expeditionary force is now in what is called "full action" and their morale is "magnificent."