BOMBING OF MOSCOW

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 198, 23 July 1941, Page 7

BOMBING OF MOSCOW

NAZIS’ SCANT SUCCESS

FORMATIONS BROKEN UP

(United Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 22. The Moscow radio announced the first German air raid on Moscow last night. It savs that more than 200 planes tried to penetrate the defences, but only single aircraft got through. A few buildings were damaged and a few people were killed and injured. Not a singlo military objective was hit, the radio says. Seventeen bombers were destroyed by night-fighters and anti-aircraft batteries. The raid lasted five and a half hours. It began at 10 p.m. and ended at 3.30 a.m. It must be considered a failure.

An agency correspondent, writing before the raid, savs that when Moscow has an air-raid warning all work stops and the traffic, including the underground trains, comes to a standstill. Most of the people go to the shelters. Most of these arc quite comfortable and are placed deep down in railway stations. (The population of Moscow was 4.100.000 in 1939.)

Moscow also refers to attempted raids on Leningrad on July 20 and 21. It says that the German machines were intercepted on each occasion, 11 being shot down in the first raid and eight i.n the second. During the second raid the Russians lost four machines. No military objectives were hit. To-day’s Soviet communique reports stubborn fighting in again the same main sectors. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph savs that Marshal Timoshenko on July 20 dislodged the Panzers from their precacious foothold which they had won in tho outskirts of Smolensk on July 18. According to most reliable sources a big battle continues westward of Smolensk on both sides of the main Warsaw-Moscow railway. At tho same time it is believed in London that German forces may be beyond the town at some points. In the Southern Ukraine sector, the Germans may be developing a thrust down the right bank of tho Dniester which, if it continues, may embarrass the Russians still in Bessarabia. The Germans make no new definite claims of advances. Reviewing the first month’s fighting, they report an advance of more tlian 370 miles from the Russo-German border. This figure would not bring them beyond Smolensk, though they had recently claimed to have made advances far beyond it. DESTRUCTION IN OILFIELDS. With tho arrival in Russia of the British experts on Rumanian oil production, the Russian raids against tho oilfields have become increasingly deadly. The Istanbul correspondent of the Daily Mail says that millions of gallons of petrol have been destroyed. The oil wells themselves have been damaged, and also the head of the pipe-hue at Giurgiu. It is stated by an; expert that the Rumanian oil production in the next three months will be i reduced by one-third. ) The Russian bombings of Galati and Sulina have severely damaged the dredging plant and dykes, which are most important because the Danube is constantly silting up and requires frequent dredging. Tho Istanbul correspondent of * the Times says that since the RussianGerman war reduced Black Sea traffic to a standstill Turkey lias been cut off from Rumania, her principal source of oil. Even transport in drums overland was interrupted after the destruction of bridges during the Balkans war. The stoppage of the Rumanian oil supply to Turkey has been attributed to the Russian air raids- on Ploesti, but the damage to the oil plants, though it is substantial, does not justify exaggerated optimism that proclaims their complete destruction. A Moscow message says that tho damage to the Ploesti oil plants as a result of the iSovict air raids is estimated at £238,000.

NAZI DISSENSION.

G ENERALS RELEGATED.

BLAME FOR SLOW PROGRESS. NEW YORK, July 22. General Rommel (commander of the Germans in North Atriea) has been recalled to Germany to collaborate with Geueral Liszt in the direction of the Russian campaign, according to private advices received in New York from Europe of a German army shakeup. The Chief of the General Staff (General von Keitel)' and the Comniander-in-Chief (General von Brauchitsch) have been relegated to the background because of the poor progress in Russia. The New York Times recalls in this connection the broadcast from Moscow based on information from Berne that Field-Marshal Goering was in disgrace and also that several Generals had been removed from their posts. It is now reported, the newspaper says, that a number of high officers have committed suicide. The secret German radio, “Tlessender,’’ to which millions of Germans listen and from which they learn the failings ol the Nazi system, is inflicting incalculable damage on the Nazi prestige. A London Times correspond cut on the German frontier says that this radio repeats a five-minute message at intervals throughout the day making the most revolting revelations of corruption, treachery, immorality embezzlement, inefficiency, profiteering, and food-hoarding bv prominent Nazis, whose names and addresses are given. Even the highest officials in the Nazi Party have been incriminated.