FORTIFIED LINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20827, 4 July 1942, Page 5

FORTIFIED LINE

RUSSIANS AT KALININ LONDON, June 11. Kalinin, 100 miles north-west of Moscow, was recaptured; by the' Red Army in December, in ' the 1 great counter-offensive that drove the Germans back from before Moscow, says a correspondent who has - recently visited this sector. He met a Red Army colonel, who explained that the front labelled Kalinin was actually a line of fortified points, stretching from the town of Toropetz, 150 miles west of Kalinin, to Rjev, 80 miles south-west' of Kalinin. The colonel said that the reason why the Kalanin front appeared so often in despatches was because it was an obvious direction from which the Germans expected a crushing' blow-from the-Red Army. 1 “Large-scale operations,” the correspondent said, “are • impracticable at present because of the condition of the countryside. Only the highways are fit for traffic, and these are firmly Held. ' / “It was raining most of the time in Kalinin, grey drifts of rain sweeping through woods of fir and silver beech, and across fields all now lushly verdant. This region is the watershed of the Upper Volga, gently undulating country of marshland, forests, and fields of rich black earth. “When it re-entered Kalinin in December, the Red Army’s first job was to put out fires started by the Germans, and to chase small parties of enemy incendiarists left behind to complete the work of destruction. It next' set about restoring the power plant, and repairing bridges. By January 22 they had power'. By February 1 the trams were running again. . . , ’ “The people began to come back to the devastated city, until there are now 170,000 living in whatever Quarters they can find. Meat, vegetables and other commodities are still rare, but the river flats and every available square yard of now planted out with vegetables.