FIERCE FIGHTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20620, 22 November 1941, Page 5

FIERCE FIGHTS

RUSSIAN FRONTS CENTRAL SECTOR PRESSURE IN CRIMEA STUBBORN RESISTANCE (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Nov. 22, 11 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 21. A Kuibyshev message quotes dispatches from the Russian front stating that fighting continues in the Tula and Kalinin areas. “The enemy drove wedges into the Russian positions, but the advance has been stopped,” stated a despatch. “Russian artillery now concentrated around the bulges in the effort cut off advanced forces from the main armies.” Beyond the fact that the Germans are exerting considerable pressure on the Rostov, Volokalamsk and Tula fronts little further news of the fighting in Russia has reached London to-day. A Soviet midday communique merely states: “During Thursday night our troops fought the enemy on all fronts.”

The Moscow radio stated that the German armies had passed to the offensive on all sectors of the Crimean front. The Red Army and marine detachments were defending the positions stubbornly.

A .Moscow communique last evening stated: “The fighting on all fronts continued to-day and was particularly fierce in the Rostov, Volokalamsk and Tula sectors. Our ships in the Barents Sea sank three enemy transports of a total tonnage of 1,900, also a 5,000-ton tanker. Our ships in the Black Sea sank a 9,000ton tanker. The air force in the central and southern fronts on November 19 destroyed 30 tanks, over 100 lorries laden with infantry and ammunition and 140 wagons with military equipment, and also annihilated two cavalry squadrons and one infantry battalion.”