NO VITAL CHANGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 197, 22 July 1941, Page 5

NO VITAL CHANGE

DESPITE GREAT BATTLES.

GERMANS THWARTED,

(United Press Association —-Copyright.) LONDON, July 21. Despite violent battles in Uie lour main sectors ol the trout, tne Russian ingnt communique again claims that tliere lias been no important change. The fact that neither side has mentioned new place names recently appears to confirm this statement. It is noticed also that the Russians for the second time mention bad weather.

The Germans alter a month’s fighting are at present about 100 miles from Leningrad, 200 from Moscow, and 128 from Kiev in their main thrusts, and as lar as is known at no point have they breached the Russian armies on a great scale since the Battle of Bialystok, which opened up the way to Smolensk. The Swiss Ncuezuerchor Zeitung’s Berlin correspondent states that lie has received the following information from a high German military source: “The Germans’ right flank is expected to operate more successfully. Its slow progress lias Leon due to the stubborn resistance in Bessarabia. The German forces have now reached some points near Kiev, but all efforts to break the Russian iront and disorganise the Red Army in the Ukraine have been unsuccessful. Kiev is still strongly defended. “The main success has been in the Smolensk zone, where the penetration toward Moscow has been considerably deepened. The lett wing of the GermanFinnish army, despite great efforts, is still behind expectations duo to the natural difficulties of the terrain.”

The correspondent continues: “According to an unimpeachable report from the front, the delay in. the German offensive is chiefly due to the Russian tactics in defending the country, and the Soviet’s offensive warfare. The Red Army has quickly adapted itself to the German mechanised warfare and has often succeeded in cutting off the motorised divisions from the advance tanks.

“Moreover, the situation lias often arisen when it is not 1 clear who is surrounded by whom. Tt often happened that at nights Russian tanks drove into German columns. This general confusion explains the heavy losses.”

The latest Moscow communique says: “Stubborn fighting continued throughout the night in the sectors of Polotsk, Neval, Smolensk, and NovogradVolynsk. There were no significant developments elsewhere. Our air force on Sunday destroyed 31 enemy aircraft for the loss of six of ours.”

The Russian midnight communique said: “Heavy fighting occurred all yesterday in the Pskov, Polotsk, Neval, Smolensk, and Novograd-Volynsk sectors. There were no important changes in positions throughout the front. Guerrillas operated successfully behind the German front lines, inflicting heavy losses. The Russian air force, in spite of bad weather, again attacked tanks and motorised units and destroyed before noon 25 German planes. The air force sank a German torpedo-boat in the Baltic.” A message from Belgrade via Budapest states that a group of Communists by destroying the electric cables on Friday entirely ueprived Belgrade of its electricity supply, which has not yet been restored. Twenty-eight persons wore sentenced to death for complicity and were shot. General Sliroeder, the towii commander, 24 hours after the executions, was seriously injured in an aeroplane accident the cause of which is not known.