GERMAN REPORTS

Grey River Argus, 22 July 1941, Page 5

GERMAN REPORTS

Progress on all Fronts RUSSIANS "SCORCHING EARTH.” ' LONDON, July 20. Sunday afternoon’s German communique stated: Operations in the Smolensk region are progressing according to plan. Further successes have peen scored on . the Finnish front. German and Roumanian forces from Bessarabia continued their pursuit of the Dniester, after breaking resistance. Desperate attempts by the encircled Russian troops to break through at a number of points on the east front were frustrated. The enemy suffered, heavy losses. The Berlin Radio claims that a Russian aeroplane depot containing 1500 machines, was captured. In the Lake Peipus area 1500 prisoners have been taken. The Russians left many dead on the battlefields, including women wearing civilian clothes under uniforms. The Germans themselves reveal the extent of the Russian “scorched earth” policy. The Berlin radio stated that vast expanses of forest country northwards of Lake Ladoga are aflame. The Russians are laying waste everything, as they retreat. The Finnish troops find deserted and ruined villages. The Berlin News Agencv said that hundreds of villages have been reduced to ashes eastwards of Smolensk. The Russians practised wholesale destruction. The retreating tanks pour incendiary bullets into the thatched roofs of buildings, causing enormous fires.

The Berlin correspondent of the Spanish newspaper “A.8.C.,” says: By torch and dynamite, the Russians razed Smolensk to the ground. The Russians are organising and [applying sabotage and guerilla warfare behind the German lines on an enormous scale. Their activities are concentrated not only against the communications of ' the advancing German armies, but extend back to the very sources of Hitler's supplies. Stalin’s call for "scorching earth” wherever the Germans appear, has been put into effect with devastating results. Never before has the aggressor met such ruthless fanaticism. Immediately the Germans enter a new town or village, they post up notices threatening to shoot anyone hiding or failing to report the presence of guerillas, but according to tne Moscow Radio, not a single man has yet been betraved. The inhabitants of a town on the right bank of the River Dvina formed themselves into guerilla bands when the Russian regular troops left to conform with broader strategy. The townspeople filled thousands of bottles irom the local brewerv with petrol and hurled them at German tanks, scores of which were put out of action. The town’s resistance was so strong that the German entry was delaved for two days, and was accomplished only after an intensive artillery preparation. It was a city of the dead when oventuallv tne German infantry marched in. Every living soul had been evacuated, but seven men hiding under a bridge across the Dvina were waiting for the first enemy column to cross. They bled up the bridge, and perished with the column as it rumbled on to the bridge. GERMAN STATEMENTS. RUSSIANS RETREATING. (Rec. S. 10). LONDON, Jul” 21. German sources do not appear to be expecting immediate sensational developments on the n.usso-German front, but they are busily harping on the German High Command’s longrange policy, one which requires extensive and complicated preparations, although they declare that the Russians are retreating everywhere. Southern Front ENEMY CLAIM TO BE AT STALIN LINE." (Rec. 810.) LONDON. July 21. The Stefani (Italian) News Agency quotes unconfirmed renorts that there has been violent battle eastwards of the Dniester River, where the Germans and Roumanians are claimed to have reached the Stalin Line at last. German Objectives MOSCOW AND LENINGRAD. NOW BELIEVED’ TO BE IN SMOLENSK. (Rec. 8.10). LONDON, July 21. “The Times” military correspondent says: It is scarcely doubtful that the Germans have now entered Smolensk. Apparently the Germans are staking all upon the capture- of Moscow. The German thrust through Pskov towards Leningrad - has, apparently, hung fire since the Russian counteroffensive. However that does not imply that the serious danger to Leningrad has been lightened. Tne progress of the Finns on either side of Lake Ladoga constitutes a sharp threat. It may be accentuated by the German advance in Northern Estonia, of which little has been heard of lately. EXTENT OF GERMAN ADVANCES LATEST INDICATIONS. (Roc. 1.20). LONDON. Julv 21. The German forces, after one month’s fighting, are at present about one hundred miles from Leningrad: about two hundred from Moscow, and about 128 miles from Kiev in their ma-n thrusts. As far as is known the Germans have at no point breached the Russian armies on a great scale s nee the battle ot Bialvstok. which opened up the way for them to Smolensk. FINNISH FORCE. NEARLY CATCHES RUSSIAN DIVISION. (Rec. 8.10). LONDON, Julv 21. Swedish war correspondents say that the Finnish forces failed by a hair’s breadth to cut off the Russian Fiftv-fourth Division in the region of where the Russians are resisting very stronglv. FINLAND’S AIM. LIBERATION OF KARELIANS. (Roc. 810). LONDON. Julv 21. A speaker in the Finnish Parliament declared Finland’s only aim in warring against Russia was to liberate the Finns of Eastern Karelia. He added: “Finland has no fantastic dreams.” A MACEDONIAN STATE. GERMAN PLAN REPORTED. (Rec. 8.10). LONDON. July 21.. The Moscow Radio announced that a member of the Ital’an Embassv in Ankara (Turkey) revealed that Germany had elaborated a plan for a new Macedonian State, consisting ot Western and Eastern Thrace, in addition to the Dardanelles. THE DARDANELLES. REPORTED GERMAN DESIGN. (Rec. 8.10). LONDON. Julv 21. The Moscow Radio announced that Bulgarian and German troons were concentrating on the Turkish border in readiness to seize the Dardanelles.