GERMANS' GRIM HOUR

Evening Star, Issue 25083, 26 January 1944, Page 5

GERMANS' GRIM HOUR

Leningrad Front Reverses LARGE FORCES IN DESPERATE POSITION Press Association—By Copyright (Rec. 10 a.m.) ' LONDON, January 25. One million' Russian troops are engaged in great battles , on the Leningrad front, according to a German military spokesman's estimate, quoted by the Scandinavian Telegram Bureau. The spokesman said the Germans were forced before heavy Russian pressure to make new retreats. " It. is impossible to prevent the Eussian tanks from breaching the German lines, but the enemy is losing 100 tanks in each onslaught," he said The struggle for the Leningrad marshes is developing into a battle of encirclement, in which the Germans are in danger of another Stalingrad catastrophe, says Eeuter's Stockholm correspondent. The Germans received the biggest reverse since the original Eussian break-through with the cutting of the Krasnog-vardeisk-Narva railway, their escape route to the west. Unless the Germans reply quickly and decisively to the Russian threat to their lifeline the big. group to the south-east will soon face its grimmest hour, with the choice of being steadily smashed where it stands or making a forced retreat across the desolate, roadless marshes. The Eussians are fighting fiercely to extend their hold on. the railway line. Troops who have crossed the line have formed a firm hedgehog position, which they are now pushing out to shell the German,fortifications. The Germans are throwing in.reinforcements on the largest possible scale since the desperate nature of their position became evident. * .