HEAVY GERMAN LOSSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 194, 18 July 1941, Page 5

HEAVY GERMAN LOSSES

FALSE CLAIMS EXPOSED SOVIET DRIVE FROM DNIEPER LONDON, July 17. Reports from Moscow say the Russians still hold Smolensk, on the River Dnieper, in the central sector of the Eastern Front halfway from Minsk to Moscow. At about noon to-day the German News Agency said German troops had captured the town, but there has been no confirmation of this in later announcements. Though the Russians' position on the Eastern Eront may still be critical here and there, they are making nonsense of the Germans' announcements last Saturday. In the northern sector, on Saturday, the Germans said they were making progress to Leningrad from the eastern shore of Lake Peipus. However, yesterday they were still 100 miles away, and to-day the sector is not mentioned by them, at all, though the Russians speak of heavy losses being inflicted on the enemy. A Swedish report says the Germans are only 70 miles from Leningrad in their "push from Esthonia, but this is not confirmed.

In the central sector the Germans arc still 220 miles from Moscow. Further south, the Russian army is still advancing in pursuit of the retreating Germans and has reached a point 30 miles west of the Dnieper.

To-day's Gorman communique says a tremendous struggle is in progress and .nine million soldiers an; facing each other in a fight of unprecedented dimensions.

Reuters correspondent at Moscow Bays the Russians aro adequately equipped to meet the German challenge. German weakness is suspected from the motley collection of aeroplanes assembled, including Polish and Italian. The people of Moscow are displaying even greater confidence than a week *g°The Soviet "War News has announced a successful termination to the negotiations between Russia and Poland. An agreement has been reached in the common struggle against Germany and it is believed a pact will be signed to-morrow. M. Lozovsky, in a statement, declared that the struggle for the freedom and independence of the Poles was that of Russia, who was also concerned for the freedom and independence or the Czechs. The Soviet Government has resumed diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium, and Norway.. Moscow had withdrawn recognition of those countries on the ground that they -were no longer independent States. The new recognition, no doubt, covers the exiled Governments.

WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION. The Vichy News Agency's military writer describes the activities of battalions and the destruction caused in carrying out Stalin's "scorched earth policy. They use flamethrowers, dynamite and special equipment to blow up bridges and burn public utility buildings and forests. A special machine called the lyre is used for wrecking railways. It is towed by a powerful locomotive, and not only rips up the rails and sleepers, but tears up the track-bed. A Berlin message says a special announcement by the High Command claims that Wing-Commander Moclders "the most successful fighter pilot in the world" with 115 victories, shot down five Soviet planes on the Eastern Eront yesterday, making his total tor the present war 101. The remainder of the victims were shot down in the Spanish civil war. Moelders has been awarded the oak leaf with swords set in diamonds, the highest German decocation for gallantry.

SUPPLIES HINDERED. SETBACK FOR GERMAN Y. RUGBY, July 16. Recent information reaching London sliows how the war against Russia is intensifying the drain on the German economic and transport systems. Further rohbery of resources from tlie occupied countries, not excluding Italy, is seen to be one result. Besides being cut oil trom the Russian trans-Siberian supplies. Germairy sees her traffic with Sweden, Norway, and Finland affected by the war The train ferry between Sassnitz and the Swedish port of Trelleborg has been fcUspendcd, for instance, and it is pretty certain that the German Baltic ports of Stettin and Lubeck are temporarily closed or, at least, that the traffic is very severely limited. This has resulted in a transfer of traffic to the constantly bombed North Sea ports oi Hamburg. Bremen, and Emden. The route for supplies to Germany through Iran is limited to the Turkish roads, and traffic from the Aegean Sea has been hindered by the Russian ■bombing of the Rumanian port of Constanta, which is apparently temporarily out of action.—Official Wireless.

GIRL LIEUTENANT

RUSSIA'S PATRIOTS. LONDON, July 13

A German war correspondent reports having found the body of a prcttv Russian girl lieutenant on Bialystok (Western Poland) battlefield. 1 V 1 She was extremely pretty and did not look more than 17. he says. She still clutched her rifle. Nearby ■was her suitcase, containing lingerie ami feminine footwear. , .Moscow reports the formation of Tillage armies to co-operate with the defence and to engage in sabotage behind the German lines. Speakers are firing them With accounts of how the "destructive defence" of the peasants turned Napoleon's march on Moscow into one or history's most disastrous defeats. The* Moscow radio says that the civil population has given invaluable assistance in rounding up Fifth Columnists whom the Germans have parachuted behind the Russian lines. The radio describes how men and •women, armed with axes and pitchforks, captured the crew of a crashed German bomber.