TENACIOUS DEFENCE

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

TENACIOUS DEFENCE

RUSSIAN TERRITORY

WEATHER GOD TROUBLES

THE ENEMY

(Rec. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 31

A message from Kuibyshev refers to a village beyond Taganrog which changed hands three times in one day, but remained in the possession of the Russians. It also tells of how Germans in the Donets Basin, having captured the eastern bank of an unnamed river, moved under cover of the morning mist to an important place where they tried to force a passage for an infantry regiment. The battle lasted the whole day, and Soviet cavalry and infantry finally forced back two German infantry regiments to the river, where many were drowned.

The Berlin correspondent of the British United Press says that the Nazi spokesman, referring to the bad weather in the Moscow area, said: "The weather god now seems to be either a Russian or a Jew, for he is giving us plenty of trouble." .

The Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Express" states that four massive German tank columns last night moved against Moscow over battlefields which were covered with at least three feet of snow.

The Finns claim to be pushing north of Lake Onega towards Soroka.

Describing the struggle in the Perekop Isthmus as one of the toughest battles of the war, German commentators claimed that their forces smashed through five lines of casemates across a defensive zone of great steppes. The Germans here have employed almost every weapon known to warfare — dive-bombers, flame-throwers, grenades, rifles, bayonets, artillery, tanks, and warships.

The Kuibyshev City Council has forbidden the entry to the city of any except those engaged on official business. Refugees are being evicfed.

drive continues, it may possibly be regarded as an attempt to outflank Moscow. Most of the drive, however, appears to be from the vicinity of Orel, about 200 miles south-west of Moscow, so that an enveloping movement would imply a change of direction.

Meanwhile, winter is descending on the whole front, and this fact is stressed by the London Press in relation to the Germans' grim struggle to forestall its onslaught.—B.O.W.