RUSSIAN CONFLICT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 38, 13 August 1941, Page 8

RUSSIAN CONFLICT

NORTHERN FRONT

CLAIMS OF THE FINNS

DRIVE ON LENINGRAD »

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.' (Rec. 2.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 12. Finnish military experts arriving in Berlin from the Russo-Finnish frontier declared that the capture of Leningrad is not expected for several weeks. They added that an offensive against Leningrad is not envisaged for some weeks unless the German offensive in the southern Ukraine terminated earlier than it was scheduled to do. Finnish troops north-east of Lake Ladoga are now about 65 miles northward of the Stalin Canal, it was said, and separated from Leningrad by swamps where progress I must be slow because, tanks and heavy artillery cannot be employed in these regions. They emphasise the imperative need for conserving Finnish man-power. Finnish troops have not attempted jto storm Hanko because they are sure it will fall into their hands after the collapse of Russia. The Stockholm "Social Demokraten" | reports that the Russians are using I gigantic modern tanks of up to 250 tons weight with nine-millimetre steel plating and 75-millimetre (3in) guns, as well as flame-throwers. A neutral journalist who visited i Smolensk declared that he had never before seen such a frightful spectacle. Warsaw and Belgrade were Paradises compared with Smolensk. Everything was burnt or battered down except a bank and a large hotel. It was a city of the dead.