THREAT TO TOWN OF TULA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 9

THREAT TO TOWN OF TULA

LONDON, October 31. The battle for Moscow is still the most important news from the Russian front, althoughthe Germans are saying little or nothing about it. The enemy attacks seem to be the fiercest where they are furthest from the city. This is at Tula, the manufacturing town about 100 miles due south of Moscow. The Soviet radio stated that Tula was directly threatened by the enemy, who had broken through the outer defences of the town and was approaching the suburbs. Whole battalions of German troops, it was said, were being slaughtered, but the enemy still kept up his attack. The front line correspondent of the '' Pravda'' says that the Germans are now dangerously close to Tula, and it is thought they will probably try to drive north-eastwards in an effort to cut Moscow's communications with the industries of the Urals and Siberia. A "Pravda" correspondent says that factory workers are streaming out of Tula to join the ranks of the regular army. It looks as though the enemy's encircling move from this quarter may be a confession of his failure in a central attack, but there is no relaxation of his effort anywhere.

The Tass news agency claims that on the southern flank the Russian troops are holding and sometimes improving their positions, but it is clear from other evidence that in this area the enemy pressure has become acute in the last few days;

The German High Command is said to be massing big forces of aircraft, armoured cars, and artillery in the hope of overrunning the Crimean Peninsula as soon as possible. The Crimea is the only part of the whole battlefront mentioned particularly in today's German communique.

There is no news of any progress by the Germans in the Rostov area, and

Moscpw radio today gave a confident description of the tremendous ring of anti-tank traps, machine-gun nests, and other defences that are ready to meet the next German attack on the town.

The Germans claim that the Russians evacuated the town of Kalinin, 110 miles north-west of Moscow, on October 13, after setting fire to important stores and factories. The German story is that the Russians stubbornly fought after the town had fallen, and that.the occupying forces had a bad time for two or three days before they could get a firm hold on the bank of the Volga where it runs through Kalinin.

The Berlin correspondent of a Swedish paper says that the Germans now admit that the Russians still have strong armoured forces for the defence of Moscow. ,