NAZIS’ SLOW PROGRESS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 196, 21 July 1941, Page 5

NAZIS’ SLOW PROGRESS

DRIVE TO MOSCOW CHECKED TANKS MEET THEIR MASTERS LONDON, July 20. The fifth week of the German campaign against Russia began to-day without any conclusive results to the German claim that important victories would be secured by the week-end. The Russian communique reports no important changes on the Eastern Front. The German communique speaks of overcoming l the Russian resistance on the west bunk of Ihe Dniester and states that operations are proceeding 1 according 1 to plan in the Smolensk area. This seems to show that even if the Germans took Smolensk last Wednesday, as they claimed, they have not progressed much further in the direction of Moscow. The Soviet reports that there has been no vital change in this sector.

Some indication of, the (milting now going on is afforded Ijv a correspondent. Demonstrating how the Russians are holding on against the German mechanised forces, lie says that, in one area, as tho tanks advanced they * ere trapped in a deep system of pits in

which seven were destroyed. A Ikix barrage was then thrown up and infantry attacked the invaders, resulting in tho destruction of further tanks.

The German News Agency admits fierce fighting from the Plain of Leningrad to Kiev in an effort to prevent tho Russians retreating behind the Ural Mountains, and states that tanks and infantry were thrown in to the battles.

Excellent progress is reported in the gathering of (lie Russian harvest and it is claimed that the harvesting is so thorough that invaders will find only fields of stubble. To-night's Russian communique reports K tha.t there is _no important change.'Fighting is going on 1(J0 miles south-west of Leningrad, around Smol ensk, and at Novograd-Volynsk, 130 miles west of Kiev.

INDOMITABLE SPIRIT

RUSSIAN MORALE UNDAUNTED RUGIIY, July 19.

“The end of the fourth week of the German onslaught on Russia finds the Russian armies everywhere resisting in good order and, in spite of their ordeal, with unabated courage and confidence,” states the Times. “They have given ground belore the superior might of the long-prepared attack. The threat to Kiev, the threat to Leningrad, and the thrust toward Moscow, which seems to have reached Smolensk, are all no doubt formidable. But there is no sign at all of the break oil which Hitler must have counted cither in the military or the political front. “'The spirit of the Russians is indomitable in the line, behind the line, and, indeed, in front of the lino, where resistance is constantly springing up to embarrass the invader in the territory already occupied by him. The Russian air force, in addition to the support given to the Russian armies, has found time to bomb repeatedly the Rumanian oilfields, thereby nobly supplementing the destruction which the Royal Air Force inflicts nightly on industrial plants in Germany itself. I Hitler is being made to pay dearly for every square mill, of Russian territory invaded by him in the past four weeks.

“Russia has never, like Nazi Germany, deliberately set out to create an offensive war machine and war industries; But her amazing wealth of natural resources, as well as the toughness of her people, give her a staying ■power which Germany may prove to lack, and her industrial capacity _is capable of eventual development which may one-day far surpass that of Germany. The fear of an unknown factor in the present and of a potential rival in the future was probably one of the halt-conscious motives which impelled Hitler into this adventure. INDUSTRY DISPERSED.

‘/An essential factor in Russia’s power of resistance is the modern eastward dispersal of Russian heavy industry. The Ukraine still occupies a preponderant place in the Soviet output of coal, iron, and aluminium. The old-established metal and engineering industries of Leningrad, of Karkhov, and of’ the region round Moscow are still of first-class importance. But the new concentration of industry and production during tho past 15 years in the Urals and Western Siberia has given to Russia’s defences a new elasticity and a new capacity for adaptation to every emergency. “There can no longer be any question of putting Russia out ot action by a few fortunate or ueii-pianned strokes at vital points. If Hitler counted—-as he may well have done — on the strategy of a knock-out blow, this method lias failed him. “The Russian armies can withdraw as they withdrew before Napoleon, fearing' destruction and devastation behind them. And if tile modern methods of war make the task of the invader in some respects easier than it was 100 years, or even 20 years, ago, the Russian resilience has been increased tenfold. “Their armies have well-stocked i bases and well-organised factories and munition plants far behind any line I which the most audacious invader can hope to penetrate. So long as the Russian defence holds together- and there are no symptoms of a disintegration—no German acquisition of territorv can destroy its power to resist and to fight again another day.-—Offi-cial Wireless.