INTENSE STRAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 76, 26 September 1941, Page 5

INTENSE STRAIN

LENINGRAD FIGHTING

ONE SIDE MUST CRACK

FOUR-DAY BATTLE ON THE DVINA

{By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) ""■'■ ':'■•"; LONDON, September 24/ '. The Stockholm correspondent of "The Times" says that Leningrad . is showing no symptoms of crack- i ing or yielding, but a permanent deadlock seems impossible. The present intensity of fighting cannot continue [indefinitely, and one side must crack.

The Germans' chances, he says, are Rightly favoured in Stockholm, begcause while the loss' of Leningrad yould be merely another very serious reverse for' Russia, the Germans' failure |r> capture the city would initiate a that they were losing the Sty-hole war. I The "Red Star" reports that in an SfcOl-day battle against the German 126 th Snf aritry division the Russians on the ]Leningrad front recaptured an importE&m; point, after which they established [tnemselves\ in new fortified positions jand repulsed all counter-attacks. The was strewn with enemy dead.

All sources, even the German, testify &o the continued, valiarice of Marshal tVoroshilov's defence of, Leningrad.

NAZI SETBACK ON THE DVINA.

A dispatch: released from Moscow describes a German setback in the fcentre of the Dyina River. Large Gerfcaan: forces, including artillery and tanks, forced a way across the upper stream of the Dvina north of Smolensk. JThe Germans planned to break through 5J216 Russian front and develop an offensive, but the Red army halted them, the Germans began hastily *o fortify the captured positions. They pig trenches, .built earth and timber idrts, put up four rows of barbed wire entanglements, and also used tanks sunk in the ground as forts, and Kiined the main approaches to their "defensive line.

The Russian troops holding this sector were ordered to oust the enemy from the eastern bank, and the Russians eventually ejected the Germans from two strongly-fortified villages, after which the -enemy, who suffered terrific losses, fled across the river. The Russians followed them and heavily repulsed .two counter-attacks. The' whole battle lasted four days.

The correspondent of "The Times" on the German frontier says that though Marshal Budenny has not succeeded in withdrawing all the encircled forces' from the region to the east of Kiev, his soldiers continue to penetrate the German ring and rejoin the body which is building up its strength for the defence of Kharkov.

IMPORTANCE OF KHARKOV.

A fierce battle is expected to develop in the Kharkov sector because the Russians attach the utmost importance to retaining this key armoury. German panzer forces ate now within 33 miles of Kharkov* and it is presumed that the main body is close behind, because the Germans are adhering to the tactics they used successfully at Kiev, which aim to keep the motorised infantry close enough behind the panzers to prevent the Russians from separating them as they dfd earlier in the war.

A message to Moscow tonight from Zaparozhe (near the destroyed dam in the Dnieper bend) shows that the town is still in Russian hands. It described a relentless German bombardment of the railway junction and added that the Soviet railway workers uninterruptedly continued to make up the trains. Heavy rain damaged the embankment, but the work went,on under fire and the service was re-established, all the trains being cleared from the junction after a terrible night.

< The Russian news agency reports that in one area, Russian cavalry, riding deeply into the rear of the enemy, found a German concentration consisting of 400, armoured cars, tanks, and lorries. The Russian cavalry commander immediately reported to the air force, after which planes made a night raid on the Germans. The morn-

severe losses,

ing revealed 800 German dead in eight bomb-craters.

The Stockholm correspondent of "The Times" points out that the few small territorial 'gains which can be reported since yesterday are all to the advantage of the Russians: for instance, in the northernmost sector along the smooth rocks leading to Murmansk, where the Austrians and Germans have suffered a fresh setback, Whether this setback will be sufficient

to cause a collapse of the whole offensive against Murmansk is not yet possible to judge, but certainly the conditions are becoming daily more difficult for the invaders,- as after the equinox the days there rapidly shorten towards total darkness.

The Soviet army newspaper describes this* second Arctic offensive as a complete failure, and says that the enemy have lost 2000 killed in the'drive. The German forces participating in this offensive included three alpine regiments which had been transferred from Norway.