LENINGRAD FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 56, 7 March 1942, Page 7

LENINGRAD FRONT

TWO-WAY CONTACT

WITH CITY

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 9 a.m.) LONDON, March 6. The position on the Lenirigrad front is not developing in favour of the Germans, reports the Stockholm correspondent of "The Times." The latest Russian offensive is largely from the Leningrad garrison. It is impossible to ascertain the extent to which the Russians have relieved, reinforced, or exchanged the Leningrad defenders, but there is two-way traffic across the ice on Lake Ladoga to Borisova Griva, north-east of the city, and thence by railway to Leningrad. It is assumed that a large proportion of the people in Leningrad are not only receiving supplies but also exporting surplus munitions for use elsewhere in Russia. This route across Lake Ladoga is likely to continue during April, before which the Russians hope to throw off the German encirclement. The battle of the Vyazma-Smolensk railway continues fiercely. Tlie Russian pressure from north and south to join the forces across the railway is threatening the isolation of the Germans in the Vyazma and Rzhev regions. German reinforcements at these points have been interrupted by White Russian guerrillas. The Russian pressure at Staraya Russa has not slackened. Another large and important convoy, carrying aeroplanes, tanks, guns, and medical stores, has reached a port in north Russia without loss or damage to a single ship. Steam jets had to be used for half an hour to melt the ice on every ship after its arrival. Everything on board the ships was frozen fast. Ice six inches thick had formed on the barrels of the guns.