GERMAN PREPARATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1941, Page 7

GERMAN PREPARATIONS

SUPREME EFFORT

LENINGRAD AND MOSCOW AS

GOALS

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 9 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 4. A supreme effort which the Germans are preparing is likely to begin with a final assault against Leningrad to be quickly followed by new impetus to the operations against. Moscow. The Germans believe that if Leningrad can be taken Moscow would soon fall because Marshal von JLeeb's forces would sweep south-eastwards and envelop the capital. The latest Russian advices, however, indicate increasing! confidence in Leningrad's ability to outlast the attackers. If this confi-' dence is justified—and it seems soundly

based—a new German offensive against Moscow would almost certainly be as •futile as that of July. Further German penetration of the Ukraine while the more northerly armies are not vanquished would pterhaps be more dangerous for the Germans than for the Russians. The Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says that Marshal von Leeb has already received masses of reinforcements and seems to have checked Marshal Voroshilov's counterattack south-east from Leningrad. German reports, however, say that Russian troops, with planes and armoured trains, are still battling fiercely between Kolpino and Tosno. » These armoured trains carry heavy naval guns and antiaircraft guns, and also battleship armour-plate. Armoured cars mounted on 'the.railway support them in lightning raids into advanced enemy positions. The correspondent adds that the situation at Leningrad is critical, with the Germans continually increasing their pressure, but the Russians continue to emphasise their ability to hold out. According to authoritative quarters •in London, the Russians in the south have launched a fierce counter-attack from the region of Melitopol, and are attempting to drive south-west to relieve the pressure in the Perekop Isthmus, where the battle still rages and the Germans are bringing up huge reinforcements. The most advanced German tanks are beblieved to be nearly on the peninsula itself. . The Moscow newspaper "Red Fleet" says that airmen of the Black Sea fleet are participating in the ferocious battle in the Perekop Isthmus. They destroyed on October 3 two battalions lof infantry and a number of tanks, I armoured cars, and motor transports. The same newspaper says that the defenders of Hanko (in the Gulf of Finland) since the outbreak of war have captured 16 neighbouring islands, shot down 40 planes, sunk several war-1 j ships, and killed 4000 Finn?