HUNDREDS OF TANKS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 198, 23 July 1941, Page 8

HUNDREDS OF TANKS

• IMMENSE BATTLE. NEW SOVIET ARMY. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, July 22. A great battle has been raging in the Smolensk area since the week-end, wii'n hundreds ot Russian tanks violently counter-at-tacking. The Russians are apparently also counter-attacking fiercely at Pskov, Porkhov, and the south-west. The Germans are at present focussing all their picked forces on Smolensk, hoping to break through to Moscow to disrupt M. Stalin s regime. The Germans are noticeably concentrating on political warfare, producing stories of a breakdown of the Russian military authority, simultaneously attempting to discredit the regime. M. Stalin’s son, who was captured, is stateil to have declared he surrendered because he realised the hopelessness of the whole struggle against Germany. The Germans apparently hope tlio capture of Moscow will produce a revolution before the German war machine is too gravely impaired. The Russians, however, have completed the mobilisation of a second great ariuv in the neighbourhood of Moscow and more men are mobilising continuously. .Neutral reports mention masses of Russian troops moving up to the front line. A German communique claims that the operations of the German army, carried out in conjunction with its allies, divided the soviet defence front into unco-ordinated groups. A- Finnish communique- says the bums have occupied and passed Pitkaraiita, eight miles south-east of Kitela, taking numerous prisoners suiil considerable material. t ■ . According to a report from Stockholm 130 German soldiers, including i hr teen officers, were killed in a mutiny at the Kvarven fortress, which guards the entrance to Bergen harbour. It is not known' whether all were killed in the mutiny or some were shot alter , it was quelled. ’ ARTILLERY D UELS. 1 The Karelian Isthmus is quiet, but : the Finns claim to be pushing their oifonsive in the direction of Kakisalmi. < Artillery duels continue at Tlauko. |< The Russian air force, in addition to i raiding over Finland, has engaged in 1 considerable fighting over the battle- i front and has also dropped parachut- i ists in several areas. _ < The German radio stated that North- 1 ern Esthonia is still in Russian hands i and that bitter fighting is proceeding < around Kiev. < The Moscow radio quoted an order t bv von Kliest. the Commander of the ] German Tank Corps, saving: “Ru- i mours about Soviet tanks breaking through have caused panic. Anyone provoking or spreading panic must be j court-martialled. Officers must act with t the utmost severity and, when neces- s sary, resort to arms.” : The Russian night communique rc- 6 ports heavy lighting in the i’etro/.a- t vodsk, Porkhov, Smolensk, and Jito- *j mir sectors; there are no essential j changes in the positions along the c front. - ,