Moscow Onslaught

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 89, 11 October 1941, Page 9

Moscow Onslaught

GAINS AT HUGE COST

LONDON, October. 10.

The great German thrusts towards Moscow are reported at some points to have driven wedges into the Russian lines, but it appears that there has been no important break-through.

. Several German attempts to take Vyazma, the defiant town 145 miles west of Moscow, have been repulsed.

The "Red Star" flatly denies that Marshal Timoshenko's army has been surrounded. It admits that some Russian forces have been cut off in the Vyazma and Bryansk areas, but says that some of these encircled Russians have managed to fight their way out and rejoin the main forces.

It is confirmed in London that in the southern Ukraine the Germans have captured Melitopol, Berdyansk, and Mariupol, on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov. It is possible that west of this area there is a considerable pocket of Russian resistance.

The main arms of the German pincer thrust now extend over an arc nearly 300 miles long, from Rhzev (70 miles north of Vyazma and 125 miles west of Moscow) to Bryansk (215 miles south-west, of Moscow), and then 80 miles eastwards to Orel. Inside this tremendous big-scale pincer movement there are a number of smaller local pincer movements, designed to break up Russian resistance.

The Germans claim to have encircled by their recent movements large units of the Russian army. This is probably true, but it is pointed out in London that these isolated pockets are still able to resist very effectively. It is known that there are large pockets behind the two main thrusts which the Germans have not been able to break up.

Today's Moscow communique reports fierce fighting in the direction of. Vyazma and Bryansk. One Russian unit in three days destroyed 65 German tanks and killed more than 1000 German soldiers.

:The Germans are reported to be throwing in fresh forces at Vyazma,

and the population is fighting side by side with the Russian troops to stem the German onslaughts. What little ground the Germans have gained has, according to a later dispatch, been made at the expense of terrific losses. It is claimed that in five days the Germans in one sector lost 400 tanks, 150 lorries, and between 7000 and 8000 officers and men killed. The "Pravda" says that the Russian fighters and bombers are' causing havoc in the German lines. In the Leningrad area, the Russians claim to have made a series of successful attacks, and the Moscow radio stated today that the Germans are having the greatest difficulty in holding their position in the approaches to the city. The German radio has again admitted that the Nazi aim is not to occupy territories but to destroy the last enemy divisions. It said: "We must expect a lot of hard work and imany a long march and heavy fighting." j Reports reaching Stockholm from j Berlin say that the Germans are still planning for a winter campaign in Russia. Aircraft are being adapted with landing skis, and German clothing factories are feverishly producing padded coats.