FELT IN TWO ZONES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 86, 8 October 1941, Page 8

FELT IN TWO ZONES

BIG EFFORT GOES ON

BUDENNY'S ANSWER

(Rec. 2 p.m). LONDON, October 7. No amount of attention to the Russian local counter-attacks, however gallantly and efficiently they are carried out, can disguise the dangerous fact that the Germans are hitting with tremendous power, not only against the Russians' weak spots, which are principally on the southern front, but also against Marshal Timoshenko's powerfullyheld positions on the central front.

Here the panzer wedges are reported to be driving in with continuous air bombing in support. Neither the Russians nor the Germans have been mentioning placenames in reports of movements either directly or indirectly aimed against Moscow, but Italian sources say that great battles are raging along the U|ra River between Vyazma and Kaluga and between Kaluga and Orel. A feature of the German claims concerning the southern and central fronts is the tremendous damage in- < flicted by the Luftwaffe "on Russian communications. The German official news agency states that 21 trains were . destroyed yesterday, and also that direct hits derailed 110 trains laden with troops and supplies. MATERIAL DESTROYED. "The Times" correspondent on the German frontier says that the Germans destroy Russian railway material without compunction because it is of broad gauge and therefore is useless as booty, while most of the Russian rolling-stock is obsolete and cumbersome, and hence of no value to the Germans.

If the rolling-stock in the Kharkov area were completely knocked out it would mean that eight main traffic lines diverging from Kharkov would be put out of action.

The Germans claim that these tactics have already cut off Marshal Budenny's chief tank supply from Kharkov, forcing him to obtain renewals from distant sources.

"The Times" correspondent adds that Marshal Budenny has launched a fierce counter-attack from -Kursk, aiming primarily to hold up the main German advance, and, secondarily, to relieve the increasing pressure on Kharkov.