VIGOROUS FIGHTING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 193, 17 July 1941, Page 8

VIGOROUS FIGHTING

SOVIET COUNTER-ATTACKS. TERRIBLE CARNAGE. (United Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 1.40 p.m.) LONDON, July 16. Across battlefields heaped with dead, and the blackened ruins of countless machines, the Russians » are vigorously maintaining their counter-attacks in the outermost defence rings of Leningrad and Moscow. The fifth day of the Germans’ second offensive brought only one specific claim of progress, the Berlin News Agency declaring that the column flanking the southern end of Lake Peipus had reached a point near Byelaya, within 130 miles of Leningrad. Otherwise the German propagandists continue hourly tp annihilate the Soviet armed forces with colourful but vague stories which might almost be duplicates of those distributed last ■week. Of these earlier stories the Times military correspondent says that, so far as is known in London, the German propaganda has gone considerably further than the German troops in the Kiev sector. It is undeniable that the general situation is tense and that the Germans are putting in tremendous weight, employing all the artifices of their well-planned and thoroughlytested organisation. They have .made great advances and there is no sign that their progress lias yet been definitely halted. However, nothing the Germans have yet accomplished can be described as decisive and perhaps even as substantial in view of the size of their effort and their expenditure of men and material. rivalTclaims. RUSSIANS HOLD LINES. (Rec. 2.5 p.m.) LONDON, July IG. The only comment on the general situation in Russia from the Berlin military spokesman is that “the operations are developing very favourably.” The Germans are thrusting deeply into Russia and arc making new and important gains in Esthonia athwart their left flunk. The significance of a German victory at Narva would be j that Russia would lose control of her i Baltic bases. It is reported from Stockholm that I the Germans and Finns are preparing ( a powerful offensive against Hanko. i Heavy artillery duels aro proceeding. The Russian communique reports that the battle continues in the Rogachev sector, cast of the River Beresina, and that the Germans have been pushed farther west of the Dnieper. Fifteen hundred Germans were killed and wounded when the Russians recaptured a town. A retreating tank battalion was surrounded and destroyed. Correspondents assert that, despite tile fury of the German hammerblows in the Narva and Karelian Isthmus sectors, the invaders have been unable to disorganise the Russians. In making the Narva thrust tho Germans are taking a serious risk of a devastating attack from the Russians in tiie Pskov, Smolensk, Bobruisk, and. Novograd-Volynsk sectors. Tho Berlin Nows Agency claims the destruction of a large concentration or Russian artillery in a bitter engagement south of Vitebsk, on the Dvina, and the repulse of motorised units advancing towards Leningrad, 'the Germans intercepted a Russian supply column a mile and a half long and destroyed many vehicles. The Stefani (Italian) Agency reports that Rumanian troops have entered Kishinev, but there is no confirmation of this. p Tho Basle Nachrichten’s Berlin cor- , respondent, says German war eorres- , pondents’ accounts of heavy Russian air attacks caused surprise, because j the High Command had led tiie pco- ; pie to believe the Russian air force | had been smashed. The Russians claim j to have achieved considerable success s against the German tanks with a new j typo of bomber equipped with camion <■ firing a .Sin armour-piercing shell. 'J’he latest bombing of Ploeeti left the j oilfield a huge sea of flames. Sulina and Tuleea were also bombed. ' j In a naval engagement in the Baltic T the Germans claim that Ji-boats sank t a Russian destroyer and severely dam- t aged a cruiser. j i i