TERRIFIC AIR BATTLES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 263, 8 October 1941, Page 7

TERRIFIC AIR BATTLES

LENINGRAD TO BLACK SEA

GERMANS' DRIVE FOR MOSCOW

LONDON, Oct. 7

Berlin speaks to-night of a terrific air onslaught on the Eastern Front ail the way from Leningrad to the Black Sea. It is claimed that the Germans' new two-pronged drive to Moscow —200 miles away —is going according to plan.

Moscow states that there is no important change in the situation, and that the Soviet army has mobilised all its forces to meet the new threat. The Red Star, admitting the seriousness of the situation, says: "We must not close our eyes to the gravity of the moment."

There is news of local Russian successes iu'several points of the central sector, -whore the fiercest fighting is raging. Marshal Tlrnoshenko's forces have jna.de successful drives against the panzer wedges which the Germans strove to insert between the Russian armies.

In the Ukraine the Germans report a big battle on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov. They claim the capture of two ports 40 miles apart, but there is no confirmation of this from other sources. Odessa "continues to stand firm and reports tell of naval fire holding back Rumanian attacking forces. Moscow speaks of the success of Marshal Butferuiy's Cossack forces arid states that in one area the Germans lost 5500 dead and 100 tanks. .

FIGHTING • IN SOUTH. ALONG SEA OF AZOV. (Rcc. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 7. A German spokesman claims that the Germans have captured Mariupol and Berdyansk, on the shores of the Sea of Azov. A German communique says that in the course of new operations a big battle lias occurred in the area north of the Sea of Azov, where, side by side with their allies, the German troops are pursuing the beaten enemy. The staff of the Soviet 9th Army wore taken prisoner, but the Commander-in-Chief escaped by air. Operations in the other sectors of the front are progressing according to plan. The Berlin radio declares that the Soviet troops encircled in the Leningrad area again attempted to break through on Monday, using infantry, tanks, artillery, and planes. The attacks, which were launched repeated!;, with great obstinacy, were repulsed. ROUT OF GERMANS. The Pravda, quoted by the Moscow radio, reports tne rout of a German tank division, an anti-tank brigade, and an anti-aireralt regiment witli the loss of 5500 killed, 100 tanks, 250 motor-cycles, 20 trench mortars, and 15 light tanks and lorries destroyed or captured. It adds that the defeat was inflicted after five days of heavy righting. It does not mention the ■wounded or prisoners, but the large number of those killed suggests a heavy total of German losses. The Pravda's war correspondent on the south-western front states that Soviet cavalry in one sector, working with tanks and bombers, killed many hundreds of officers and men near a certain village. It adds: "The enemy s 25th Motorised and 9th Tank Division suffered heavy , losses. The Russians captured about 400 lorries and 100 guns and destroyed 15 tanks and ol anti-tank guns. The Helsinki radio claims that the German forces which are already at Peterhof, at the head of the Gulf of Finland, defeated a Russian attempt to land there from the Gulf, of * inland The Germans on the Crimean iront have suffered severe losses in the lstnmus fighting without making any progF A S 'Russian broadcast states that ships laden with planes from Britain and the United States have arrived in Russia, and the newest type of American tanks are on the way. British airmen are destroying Hitler's armoured columns, and the newest type of British plane, the Beat - fishier is expected to arrive soon on the Eastern Powerful fourcngined bombers are also arriving. GERMANS' STEEP CLAIMS. While M. Lozovsky was laconically observing that "Hitler has several hundredlhousand extra men he wants v„,; Q rl " the commentator on tne x>ei Hn r r e aiio chimed that the German v.ctory rftol; Hil Command' to which nothing immediately menaced the ma areas of the Donetz Basin The earlier statement that the uer mans have captured Mariupol and Si wfit S&* «««- •«J; n, l ,_ iMM nowhere nre shovnng i Xl&le «d «" a a nSv °oun"completely coUapsed^ RUMANIANS SHOT, DISPUTE WITH ANTONESCU. I m! U3oa ß ) LONDON, Oct. 7. (R f,oordins to authoritative Rumani According x° , , number of e« Antonescu protesting against fur ■ I Sled from active service on the m Odessa front. ,