Severe Fighting Continues

Evening Star, Issue 24003, 30 September 1941, Page 7

Severe Fighting Continues

Russian Successes In Smolensk Area Invaders Make Little Progress In Crimea (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright (Received 11.30 a.mj RUGBY, September 29. Reports of the major operational activities on the Russian- ' German front continue meagre, probably reflecting some diminution in the scale of the fighting, but certainly not of its ferocity or intensity. The changes iu the relative positions of the opposing forces include slight give and take of ground in thd Leningrad area, also some further indentation of the once thick Smolensk wedge, which recently lost its regular shape as the result of Marshal Timoshenko’s counter-attacks, particularly around Yelnia, where his successes were somewhat extended during the 'week-end. The Soviet Information Bureau to-night declared that von Guderian’s forces were still retreating following their recent repulse near Bryansk, and that the Russians captured two more villages. “ Highways and villages retaken by the Red Army in this sector are littered with the wreckage of German tanks,” the bureau adds. Von Guderian, withdrawing south-westwards, tried to establish a new line, but Marshal Timoshenko’s units worsted the German rearguards. Half of the German twentythird motorised infantry regiment, which unsuccessfully attempted to defend one village, consisted of youths of 18, who reached the front the previous week. The latest information reaching London shows that severe fighting continues on all parts of the Russian front. The Germans continue to be held up in the. area near Poltava and in the Crimea. Numbers of heavy enemy air attacks have been made on communications in the Crimea on both railways and roads, but the Germans appear to have made very little or no progress on the isthmus. Ai Russian, communique states: “ During last night we engaged the enemy in fighting along the entire front.” An Air Ministry communique says that the latest reports from Russia show that the R.A.F. wing to September 27 destroyed 12 planes for the loss of one fighter.