SOVIET FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20622, 25 November 1941, Page 9

SOVIET FRONT

CHECKING NAZIS MOSCOW BATTLE SOUTHERN COUNTERS VILLAGES RETAKEN (Elec. Tel. Copyright--United Press Assn.) (Reed. Nov. 24, 3 p.m.) LONDON, Nov, 23. No decisive results appear to have been achieved by the Germans in what is reported to be the heaviest offensive yet mounted against Moscow. The Soviet midday communique merely states: “During the night fighting took place along the whole front.” There is still no confirmation by the Russians of the claim of the Germans to have captured Rostov, nor any news from Germany as to whether German troops succeeded in crossing the wide and swiftly-flowing Don on the western bank of which Rostov is situated and which, even though this important -ity has fallen, should prove a considerable obstacle to the Germans’ advance towards the Caucasus. Marshal Timoshenko is clearly offering the fiercest resistance in this sector. The preservation of Hie oil of the Caucasus and the sea route from the oil wells of Baku to the north Caspian port of Astrakhan is of first importance to the Russians.

German tanks and infantry are keeping up the pressure on some sectors of the Moscow front. The Hravda says the Germans again succeeded in making some advance in the Volokalamsk and Mojaisk jirections and the area south-eastwards of Tula. German tanks pierced the Russian lines in the Tula sector, but were halted on the outskirts of the city. The Germans are persistently attacking along 'he Volokalamsk highway where effective Russian counter action stemmed the drive. Southward Move Fails

German attempts to move southwards and cross the River Naro again failed with heavy casualties. Fighting continued until nightfall and in some cases went, on through out the night.

There were no serious engagements and no substantial changes on the Naryfominsk and Maloyaroslavets sectors.

Heavy fighting is proceeding in the direction of Kursk where the Germans brought up large tank forces and succeeded in slightly advancing. The Russians cut up three battalions of infantry. Russian infantry, strongly supported by artillery, captured several villages on the southern sector of the Kursk front and in one day wiped out 1,000 Germans. The Red Star admits that the Germans penetrated the Russian defences of Rostov and states that heavy fighting is proceeding in the streets. Toll Taken by Russians German tanks reached the railway station, where the fighting was particularly fierce, the Germans paying dearly for every yard of their advance. In the past two days the Russians have killed and wounded thousands of German soldiers, and the air force in the past four days is estimated to have wiped out 4000 soldiers and destroyed dozens of tanks. The Moscow radio claims that the Russians in the Donetz Basin advanced 22 miles in two days. Miners from the Don pits stormedrnountain heights and drove back the Germans. Other major successes are reported in this area, where 10 large'villages were recaptured. The Germans lost two of five battalions. Russian Stormoviks are dealing terrific blows against the German reinforcements.

The Izvestia says the Russian troops are forcing their way towards the River T. on a sector to which the Germans attach great importance. The Germans here concentrated picked troops and massed guns, but the accurate Russian aqtillery fire destroyed the German bases.

It is reported from Kuibyshev that Major-General Panfilov was killed on the Moscow front. Race With Winter The very heavy fighting which has been proceeding during the past four days, with the Germans making frantic endeavours to capture Moscow before the height of the winter is reached, was said in an overnight Soviet communique to have been the fiercest in three sectors of the central front —Kalinin, 100 miles to the northeast, Volokalamsk, 75 miles east, and Tula, 100 miles south of the capital—and at Rostov, at the mouth of the River Don in the south. Beyond this mention of the important industrial and communications centre of Rostov, which is also virtually the gate to the Caucasus, the Soviet communique ignores the German claim to have captured it. The communique adds that on Friday the Soviet air force destroyed 22 German tanks, 12 armoured cars, 896 lorries, 14 staff buses, six petrol tank lorries, 568 carts with shells, and 32 guns, and annihilated over 3000 officers and men. The Times’ Stockholm correspondent says the Germans seized the opportunity for easier mobility as a result of the freezing of the ground and resumed the offensive against Moscow on a scale the weight of which is exceeding expectations. A slight Russian retreat at Tula and Volokalamsk was made in good order and the prospects of unyielding resistance becomes better than during the earlier offensives. It. is believed the Germans will be unable to long maintain the present strength of the offensive owing to the inadequacy of supplies for the present rate of expenditure. The casualties are already tremendous, oven judged bv the high standards on the Moscow front. That the weather, at least on the southern Russian front, is not preventing widespread and effective operations by the Red Air Force, is indicated in a supplement in to-day’s Soviet communique which stales: — “The Soviet air force operating on the southern front destroyed 47 enemy tanks, 392 lorries with infantry and war equipment. 115 carts with army supplies, six buses and Iff guns and routed 1000 enemy troops.”