THE FRONT LINE

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

THE FRONT LINE

MORE OR LESS STRAIGHT

RUGBY, October. 4.

The Russian front line from the Baltic to the Black Sfea is now more or less straight. The absence of major salients means that no Russian forces are in danger of encirclement unless the Germans make new thrusts, and these will involve, frontal attacks.— 8.0.W.

As a preliminary to the next phase of operations, the Germans have given semi-offlcially a rough outline of the front as running from Schlusselburg to the River Volkhov, mid-way between Lake Ladoga and Lake Ilmen, thence along the Volkhov through Novgorod, along the Lovat to VelikiYeluki straight southwards to the Dvina near Vitebsk, thence proceeding irregularly south-eastwards, joining the River Desna below Elnia, leaving Desna above Bryansk, and thence southward to Konotop" Romney, and Poltava, reaching the Dnieper below .Kremenchiig. It then follows the Dnieper, with the Germans holding a strip 20 to 30 miles. long on the left bank until midway getween Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe, which the Russians still, hold. The Russians then hold both banks of the Dnieper to a point a little east of Nikopol, where the front recrosses and descends to Genichesk. Melitopol and Akimovka are shown as still in the possession of the Russians.

The most interesting point about this German outline of the front is that it coincides roughly with information from the Russians. The outline does not specify the German positions west and south-west of Leningrad, but the Germans admit that the Russians hold Oranienbaum. The German line around Leningrad has gaps over which the Germans maintain precarious contact by land and air.