The New Assault on Moscow

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 264, 6 November 1941, Page 5

The New Assault on Moscow

RUSSIANS ADMIT THREAT TO CRIMEA

LONDON, Nov. 4. Earlier messages state that Hitler has launched the second wave of his great winter offensive against Moscow', says the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent at Stockholm. All yesterday, German tank and infantry reconnaissance units made contact with the Russians along the central front. This morning von Dock’s four great Panzer armies thundered forward through snowpowdered forests against strongly-pre-pared and reinforced Russian positions in the five key sectors of Tula , Malo Yaroslavets, Mozhaisk, Yolokalainsk and Kalinin. The battle for Moscow is developing into a trial of strength between superior German tank forces and overwhelmingly superior Soviet artillery, which is the weapon in which tho Russians have always excelled. Up to’this evening the Germans had not made any considerable progress. Indeed, Russian shock brigades have reoccupied the southern suburbs of Tula, in the south, and are now fiercely engaging Guderian’s tank division the approaches to the town. Von Reinhardt’s drive towards Moscow from Malo Yaroslavets, in the south-west, was agaiu bloodily repulsed at the crossings of the Naro River.

The Germans made some initial pro- - gress at Volokalamsk and Mozhaisk, in the w'est, but the Russians, after a fourhour tank battle between the forces of the German general Hoeppner and General Boldin, drove back Panzer forces which had advanced five miles in the Mozhaisk sector.

The Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent adds that the Russians have entirely recaptured Kalinin, north-west of the capital, where the Soviet forces include ski troops from Marshal Bluecher’s Siberian winter army.

Tho Moscow radio states that tho Soviet Air Force raided Danzig, Konigsberg and Riga.

More Hopeful Tone.

No fresh developments on the Eastern Front are disclosed in the mid-day Russian. communique, which merely states: ‘ ‘ During the night of November 3 our troops fought the enemy on all fronts. ’ ’ Military circles in London likewise have nothing to add in clarification of the position, though it is felt that the tone of the various dispatches from Moscow and Kuibishev is perhaps more hopeful than of late. Developments are clearly awaited both in the Crimea, where the Germans extravagantly claim the defeat of 40 Russian divisions, and on the Moscow front.

An agency message from Kuibishev, new administrative centre of the Soviet Government, states that heavy German shelling of Tula and an intensifying ot the struggle for this industrial' centre to the south of Moscow are reported in military dispatches, which add that an artillery bombardment was opened last night after a break-through by the enemy on the outskirts of the city. A drive to the centre of Tula was, however, repulsed with heavy German losses. The Germans continue to send up reinforcements, and have replenished their Third and Fourth Tank Divisions and the 29th Motorised Indantry Division.

Undaunted by the shelling, the Soviet troops, assisted by the population of Tula, are conducting an active defence. The Moscow radio said that the enemy made several attempts to launch an offensive.in the Volokalamsk district, north-west of the capital, on Monday with strong tank and troop forces, but were driven back. The enemy made particularly fierce attempts to break through the Soviet defences at Mozhaisk and also unsuccessfully attempted to cross the Naro River. Crimea in Danger.

‘ ‘ The Crimea is in danger, ’ ’ says tho Red Star's war correspondent. ‘‘The Germans several days ago broke through the defenco lines, and, although they suffered enormous losses as the result of our stubborn resistance, they kept up their furious onslaught, striving to widen the gap, which eventually they accomplished.

In the past few days, the enemy forces have pushed into the Crimea, where they are developing an offensive across the Crimean Plain. They are now menacing a large number of large Crimean towns and striving to push the defenders into the mountains. The Germans have already captured some towns and are now mustering all their forces for a blow against the central districts of the peninsula. “Tho Germans achieved those results,” the Red Star’s correspondent adds, “because they mobilised a vast army against the Crimea, hurling against the Perekop Isthmus five divisions, more than 200 irianes and tremendous numbers of guns and tanks.” The correspondent says that, according to the most moderate estimates, the Cermans in the Crimean fighting have lost more than 90,000 killed and wounded.

“The Germans,” he says, * ‘have captured part of the Crimea, but have lost almost a whole army without achieving their main aim of destroying our troops. The Crimea is in a very difficult situation, but is unconquered, and the fight will go on.”

The Germans claim the capture of a small port on the west coast of the Crimea north of {Sebastopol, but Berlin issues a warning not to expect the immediate fall of Sebastopol itself. The Soviet spokesman, M. Lozovsky, stated that a battle of extreme violence had occurred between Taganrog and Rostov. Both sides lost heavily, but the Germans were halted westwards of Rostov.

The German initial success in crossing the upper Donetz River at several places was followed by a check when Cossacks flung the enemy back across tho river, but the Germans claim that they hold long stretches of the west bank of the Donetz. Murmansk Holds On. After four large-scale enemy offensives over a period of four months, Murmansk, on the Arctic front, is still an impregnable fortress, says Izvestia. The Germans have now been forced to build trenches, but they are unlikely to stand the Russian winter and will probably force the Finns to man them. The Red Star reports that Soviet bombers, escorted by Hurricanes and Russian fighters, bombed the German positions around Murmansk. The German news agency claims that Finnish troops have captured a group of islands in the Gulf of Finland southwards of Viborg (Wiipuri) which were

an important base for the Soviet Meet in the Baltic. The agency adds that operations on the Finnish front are now assuming the character of a blitzkrieg. Thousands of square miles have been cleared of the enemy, and further advances are continuing towards the Murmansk railway and the Stalin Canal, it claims.