MASS ATTACKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 77, 27 September 1941, Page 9

MASS ATTACKS

RUSSIANS AT LENINGRAD

ALSO FURTHER SOUTH

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

(Rec. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 26.

The Russians are launching an increasing number of counter-attacks on the Leningrad front, and have recaptured four villages at one point and pushed the Germans back five miles. The fighting reached its highest pitch in the south-eastern and south-west-ern approaches to the city, where the Russians are reported to be attacking in mass formation, alternating with skirmishing tactics. The Russians are also resorting to night. attacks in an effort to retain the initiative. A dispatch to Vichy claims that after occupying Tsarkoye Selo, 10 miles south of Leningrad, the Germans are launching attacks against the fortified heights overlooking Pulkova. The German news agency declares that the Russians are throwing great masses of troops against the German positions in the northern sector of the central front,, in an attempt to draw the German strength from Leningrad. Marshal Timoshenko has scored further local successes on the central front, where he is steadily advancing towards Smolensk. Vichy reports admit that Marshal Budenny is strongly counter-attacking between Kiev and Poltava. The Helsinki radio declared that the Germans from Poltava are at the gates of Kharkov. NAZI EFFORTS TO FORCE RIVER. Describing the fighting at Leningrad, a correspondent of the "Red Star" says that the Germans tried to advance at one point with 400 motor-cycle troops equipped with machine-guns and supported by tanks, but Russian artillery smashed up the column. The Germans threw in two fresh battalions in a frontal blow, and they failed. The Germans then sent in a column "yelling like the ancient Teutons." The Russians concentrated all types of fire, mowing down many of the enemy. The column broke in disorder, leaving IPOO killed and wounded.

"The Russians for the past month have been holding the east bank of the Volkhov where it flows out of Lake Ilmen, with front lines less than a mile from Novgorod. German attempts to force the river were decisively smashed. Two German battalions which gained a foothold on the east bank were hurled back, leaving 300 killed and wounded. Russian patrols frequently cross the river at night and bring back prisoners. They have also penetrated the German lines and started fires, causing confusion.

Heavy fighting has occurred south of Lake Ilmen during the past few days. The Germans have gained nothing and lost many men and much material.

The Vichy news agency states that Marshal Shaposhnikov, Deputy Commissar of . Defence, whom M. Stalin sent to Karelia in 1940 to end the war, "regardless of cost," is reported to have joined Marshal Budenny on the southern front.

A German communique claims the annihilation of the remaining enemy forces which were surrounded east of Kiev and relentlessly pursued. Prisoners, it is stated, total 492,000, and the numbers are steadily growing.