NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1941, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

FOREFRONT STILL

RUSSIAN STRUGGLE

HOPEFUL OUTLOOK

After fifteen weeks of continuous battle with 1 varying fortunes, the Russian struggle remains still undecided, but still in the forefront of the war. Beside it operations elsewhere on land, at sea, and in the air are overshadowed, though they may have important bearings on later developments. The constant effort to maintain freedom of the seas for lommunications and transport under insidious forms of attack vitally concerns the issue in Russia. So do the widespread raids of the R.A.F., and movements in.the Middle East may open a way for further relief to. Russia from Nazi pressure. On the whole the impression of the latest news from the Russian front is hopeful. Over at least half the long front from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea the Russians appear to be gradually, but steadily, improving their position. The winter . port of Murmansk, which will gain vastly greater importance as the White Sea, with its port of Archangel, freezes up in the next few months, has stood firm against the latest of many attempts to take it from the land, and may now be considered comparatively safe. The railway connecting Murmansk- with Leningrad keeps as far east as possible away from the Finnish frontier, but is reported to have been cut by the Finns at Kandalaksha and Petrozavodsk. The Finnish hold of-the terrain towards these two points cannot -- be secure, and their losses in this war have exceeded those in their last encounter with Russia nearly twr years ago. It seems unlikely that any. threat to Leningrad from this quarter will do much to help the Germans in their more violent onslaught from the south. According to the latest . reports the Russians have been /recovering lost ground in the Karelian Isthmus, andhave broken up a Finnish move on Leningrad from Lake Ladoga^ It is difficult to see how the Finns, can have much heart in continuing the. war. Leningrad Holds Out. Leningrad is holding out successfully against frenzied attempts by the Germans, under von Leeb, to break through the defences to the south. The Nazi losses must have' been terrific under such conditions, and it may well be,, as a prisoner is reported to have stated, that attackers will have to retreat. There is no. further news at the moment of the fighting. ..further south of Leningrad where the Germans were said to be trying to break through " to the Valdai Hills, but had been driven back by Voroshilov's counterattacks. It is said that the line from Leningrad southward is now comparatively straight, without major salients. From the places mentioned,in the news as the scene of fighting it may be taken that the line from the outskirts of Leningrad runs roughly east of Novgorod, past Lake Ilmen and Staraya Russa, through Demyansk, and slightly east of Kholm and Velikie. Luki to the central sector where Marshal Timoshenko is working towards Smolensk. Danger to the South. It is to the south-of this point that there is a certain amount of obscurity, but RoslaVl and Pochep have been mentioned as scenes of recent fighting. Generally the Germans are on the defensive in this area. Further the Germans must be.some distance.to the east of Chernigov, from which came the northern claw of pincer which encircled Kiev and endangered Rus- > sian forces in the vicinity. From Chernigov down to the Dnieper bend at Dnepropetrovsk, and including Poltava, is Russia's chief danger zone today.. There is little reference in the news to actual fighting since Budenny managed <, to extricate -most of his ' forces from the Kiev encirclement, but it is from here that the most successful German .general so far, von Rund- ; stedt, is said to be preparing a vast '. new offensive aimed at the of the armies of Timoshenko and Budenny near Kursk with the object of turning both Russian flanks and driving north, to Moscow or, south to ' Kharkov. Both Kursk and Kharkov are on the main line of railway- connecting Moscow with the Crimea, via, Zaporozhe and Melitopul. Should Rundstedt.succeed it would imperil the whole of the Russian front south,. of Moscow, and particularly the vital industrial regions of ihe Don Basin, opening up a way to the. Lower . Volga. This is the most crucial section of-the entire Russian front Perekop and Crimea. Further south still the Germans are delivering most violent assaults on the Isthmus of Perekop, the only land approach to the Crimea, though in the dead of winter the shallow waters of arms of the Sea of Azov are frozen over and bear "the transport of troops. To the north of Perekop over the riverless portion of the Ukrainian. steppe Budenny has scored local successes in a series.of counter-attacks to relieve pres- - sure on Perekop. His base is presumed to be Melitopol, and by striking west towards the Lower Dnieper he would threaten the rear oi the Germans at Perekop. In the Civil War. Perekop, as recorded in the news, was the' scene of action on two occasions in the Russian Civil War. During Deniken's campaign in the spring of 1919 in Southern Russia, French forces were landed to help the White Russians, but on April 2 they were withdrawn from Odessa after a quarrel with Denikin's representatives. The White Army was prepared to defend Perekop, but was too weak without assistance, and the.French disgustedly expressed unwillingness to aid an "army which flies from the field pf battle." By the end: of April Denikin's forces had evacuated the Crimea. This was the end of .direct French intervention in Southern Russia. _ Eighteen months later, as mentioned some time ago in these notes. General Wrangel. the last of the White Russian leaders, in his retreat from South Russia, stood on the defensive at Perekop for three days (November.B-11, 1920). There were three lines of defences, the first north of the town of Perekop; the second along an old Turkish -wall, well equipped: with artillery, and the last at "the southern end' of the isthmus where the terrain is broken up by several small lakes. The Red army took the first line, by anight-crossing over the water in the rear of the defenders. The Turkish wall was abandoned for fear of a rear attack. The: third line was taken by assault after the Reds had reached the flank by an i improvised bridge. Wrangel realised that his cause was lost, and the Crimea was evacuated as quickly as possible. This was the last stand of the Whites and really the end of the Russian civil wqr.