CREEPING NEARER

Evening Star, Issue 24054, 28 November 1941, Page 5

CREEPING NEARER

NAZI DRIVE ON MOSCOW FIERCE ACTION ON WESTERN FLANKS RUSSIAN LINE HELD AT SEBASTOPOL Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright!. (Roc. 1 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 27. The Germans are slowly creeping nearer Moscow. The Moscow radio announcer said: “ Moscow is dear to us. We shall not let them take Moscow. We shall hold on to the bitter end. We shall not retreat: we cannot retreat. Behind us stands Russia.” There is fierce fighting on the two western flanks of the capital, and the Germans are throwing in everything they have got in a desperate onslaught. A leading article in Pravda * calls on the defenders not to allow the enemy to approach any closer A Moscow report states that after 24 hours of fighting the enemy succeeded in forcing crossings at a number of points along a river in the Klin area. The latest reports from Sebastopol state that units of the Soviet army and Black Sea fleet continue to bold their positions. The enemy suffered heavy losses in attempting to break througn the Soviet defences. The Germans to date have lost well over 100,000 men in the Crimean campaign. The German military spokesman declared that the Germans bad taken Klin. It is also claimed in Berlin that the German forces have penetrated Moscow’s outer defences and are now approaching the inner line, which, it is pointed out, is still some distance from the centre of the city. ‘ Izvestia ’ says the Germans have thrown in six tank and five infantry divisions in the Volakalamsk direction, where the situation has become aggravated during the past 24 hours.

LENINGRAD FRONT RUSSIANS RECOVER IMPORTANT GROUND LONDON, November 27. Whereas the initiative in the Moscow zone still rests with the invaders, the Russians have wrested it from them in larger part not only in the Black Sea, but also on the Leningrad front, and they have recovered important ground from General von Leeb, particularly in the Tikhvin area, where the LeningradVologda railway appears to be already wholly, or almost wholly, cleared of the Germans who swooped down on it in the first half of November, says the Stockholm correspondent of ‘ The Times.’ Russian counter-aggression stretched further south, at least to the BologoiePakov railway, where the Russians' are pressing, the, Germans towards--Lake liman. The Germans hereabouts have apparently released part of their troops to support operations in the Klin area. According to accounts from - Berlin, the Germans actually reached the Don at Nakahicheven, just above Rostov, before the Russians launched a successful counter-stroke in the Donetz_ Basin. The position in the Crimea is unchanged.

SENT TO AID RUSSIA BEST BRITISH LOCOMOTIVES (British Official Wireless.) "■RUGBY, Nov. 26. The fact that Britain had sent abroad a substantial number of her best locomotives in order to assist the Russian armies was disclosed in a parliamentary reply to-day. GERMAN AIRMEN APPALLING ACCIDENT RATE DEATHS OF PROMINENT OFFICERS LONDON, Nov. 26. “ The recent deaths of four prominent officers of the Luftwaffe give some idea of the Luftwaffe’s appalling accident rate, because it can be only seldom that the air chiefs have to travel ui aeroplanes,” savs the aeronautical correspondent of ‘ The Times. - ’ ‘ For many mouths information reaching Britain indicated an almost crippling rate of Luftwaffe training and other accidents. Oreat numbers of pilots and crews have been killed near training schools in eastern Germany, The accidents are believed to be due to cutting down the training period. Some German pilots and crews shot down during night raids on Britain have been men in training, and others have been from training schools only a few days or weeks. This seems to indicate that Goering is finding difficulty in replacing airmen killed on the eastern front and elsewhere.”

FREE STATE OF LEBANON PROCLAMATION CEREMONY BEIRUT, Nov. 26. General Catrons, at a ceremony at the palace, proclaimed Lebanon an independent sovereign State subject to restrictions imposed by the’ present state of war. The proclamation stipn r latod Lebanon’s right to create national defence forces, but for the duration of the war the Allies control Lebanon’s defence, and Lebanon will place its defence forces at the disposal of the Allied Command. ANOTHER FOR GOERING’S COLLECTION HIGHEST ITALIAN DECORATION (Rec. 8 n.m.) LONDON, Nov. 2". Tho Berlin radio states that Mussolini conferred on Goering the Grand Cordon of the Military Order of Savoy, Italy’* highest military decoration.