Nazis Claim Capture Of Kerch, Whole East Crimea

Northern Advocate, 18 November 1941, Page 5

Nazis Claim Capture Of Kerch, Whole East Crimea

Russian Winter ■Assuming Its Rights •(Received 1 p.m.) LONDON. November 17. A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM HITLER’S HEADQUARTERS CONFIRMED AN EARLIER GERMAN NEWS AGENCY MESSAGE SAYING THAT KERCH HAS BEEN CAPTURED AND THAT THE WHOLE OF EASTERN CRIMEA IS NOW IN GERMAN HANDS. It is further claimed that 100.000 prisoners have been taken so far in I lie ('rimea campaign. The Gorman military spokesman claimed that while attempting to evacuate troops from the (’rimea nine Soviet warships were sunk by bombs and 24 were badly damaged. Sixty Russian merchantmen, of a tonnage of 2d0.000 were sunk in the same operations and GO were damaged. “The destruction of these ships means that masses of men and material cannot he removed from (lie Crimea.” added the German spokesman. . . " With the capture of Kerch. German and Rumanian troops are now facing the Caucasian foreground, while the Kerch Straits are (dosed to all Soviet traffic, which means that all the ports on the eastern side of the Sea of Azov, from'Rostov to Temyruk. are cut off from communications with the south.” FIRST FROZEN CASUALTIES According to a message from Samara the Russians have found the corpses of the first Germans frozen to death. The nev/spaper “Praivda, ” in comment, says the Russian winter has assumed its rights with a fierce frost and heavy snows, hampering the action of tanks. The Germans keep mainly to roads now and are more vulnerable to blows from Russian troops, the air force and artillery. v The Berlin news agency reports that the Russians are throwing in new units on the Moscow front, where violent fighting followed a Soviet counter-attack with a number of tanks.

Tula Drive Fails “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says that if the diagnosis is correct and the drive against TrJa, 110 miles south of Moscow, has failed, this battle must be recorded as a major German defeat, and, indeed, as the frustration of the offensive against Moscow in 1941. The decision may be contested by a further out-flanking movement from the region of Kursk and Orel, but apparently the overstrained communications will defeat such a purpose, and the long sweep which would be necessary would demand more materia' than the Germans have. The correspondent adds that the Germans and Finns in the Murmansk area have achieved practically nothing for four months and are still stuck at the River Liza. 4000 Killed The war correspondent of the Moscow newspaper “Pravda” on the Karelian front describes an operation by picked German troops a fortnight ago in the Kestenga area, when they attempted to cut an important railway, drive a wedge between Russian units, disrupt Russian communications and jthus improve* their position in the Murmansk area. The enemy’s furious attack was met with such tenacity and valour that in the first 10 days' fighting the enemy lost about 4000 killed. The Soviet troops then attacked the German flank, advanced several miles and captured a number of important localities. They left hundreds of killed and wounded lying on snow-covered ground. Thereafter the enemy failed to move a step forward. Germans Thrown Back The German efforts on the Moscow front have precipitated the Germans have been thrown fierce fighting at Kalinin, where back, and also at Tula, where the Russians have recaptured altogether 21 villages, and are now massing reserves to follow up the successes. • “The Times” correspondent on the German frontier says tlie Russians attach the utmost importance to the recapture of Tikhvin, east of Leningrad, in order to reopen land communications between Leningrad and Moscow, but the German grip on Tikhvin so far has been unbreakable. Marshal Timoshenko’s defence of the Ukraine is so strong and the weather- so unpropitious that the German advance has been effectually stopped.