FIGHTING IN ALL SECTORS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 6

FIGHTING IN ALL SECTORS

SANGUINARY BATTLES IN THE SOUTH Germans Checked in the North NO CHANGE AT SMOLENSK REPORTED (Rec. 12.10 p.m.) London, Aug. 3. After failure to penetrate Russian defences in the central sector the German offensives have apparently intensified towards Kiev and Leningrad. Latest official reports received at Moscow indicate that sanguinary battles are proceeding day and night in the southern sector. The Germans seemingly have thrown a wide arc around the southern and western approaches to Kiev, although the indefiniteness of German references to fighting in this sector indicates that the German advance may be no more than a break-through by tanks.

A German communique claims that alter fighting between the Dniester and the Bug rivers large Soviet forces are threatened from the rear. The communique added that an encircling manoeuvre was developing, putting the Russians in a serious position. There is apparently no important development in Finland, but lighting furiously flared up in Estonia after a lull following a decisive check to the Germans around Pskov and Porkhov. The Germans claim considerable successes west of Lake Peipus, but the British United Press correspondent at Moscow reports that the drives towards! Leningrad from both north and south' are again halting. The Finns admit great Russian activity northwards of Lake Ladoga, where; the Russians are stated to have been 1 constantly attacking. The Moscow newspaper “Pravda” i publishes a special message from I Tallinn reporting that the city is calm! and vigilant and is consistently beating' oil' enemy raids from the Gulf of Fin-i land. Thousands of Tallinn workers} have joined the “destruction battalions”! for lighting parachutists and already; have been in action. A people's army is also being created. Bitter lighting continues in the. Sn olensk wedge, but no change is re-i ported from either side, though a Ger- j man news agency claimed good results j east of Smolensk. AIR RAID ON MOSCOW A Soviet communique early on Mon - day states: “In the course of 3rd August. our troops engaged the enemy in the ; directions of Smolensk. Kerpsten, : Belotsorkov and in other sectors of the I front. No essential changes have j taken place in the disposition of our | troops. “Our air force in co-operation with ! I land forces attacked mechanised and i motorised units of infantry and artillery. In aerial combat with the enemy ; air force 31 German planes were shot down with the loss of nineteen Soviet. I planes. In the course of an attack on Moscow carried out by German planes during the night following 2nd August two German planes were brought down ■ without loss. “An enemy submarine was sunk in the Baltic Sea. It has now been a<- [ certained that during the raid on Constanta carried out by Soviet planes nn 2nd August bombs hit a floating dock, an enemy destroyer and enemy. shipping in the harbour.” “MUCH BLOOD AND SOME PROGRESS” “Much blood and some progress" sum- j marised to-day's reports to Berlin. Dis-J patch after dispatch emphasised the bitterness of Russian resistance. The; Germans claim that Russian losses are extremely heavy, but evidence is not; lacking that, heavy sacrifices are being 1 exacted from the Germans. The “Voelkischer Beobachter’ declared that Germany has found in the Red Army an enemy v ho battled with dogged tenacity surpassing all previous opponents in lighting temper. “Izvestiu” (Moscow) said: "We are not hurrying with the statement that the Fascist army is smashed, but the blitzkrieg trump has b«*cn beaten. Our resistance is growing and gaining: strength. With no better success than was reported after .ast night’s raid on Moscow than previously the Luftwaffe' is apparently changing its tactics.” j SECRET AIR RAID DEFENCES For the first time for many days raids were reported against military ob jectives in the southern Ukraine and the upper Volga. The “Sunday Express” says Russia will probably reveal to Britain her : secret air raid defences which caused j Germany enormous losses during the nine attempts to bomb Moscow. The ; greatest number of Nazi bombers ever ! to penetrate Moscow's outer defences | was seven of a force of 15U. Experts j are asking what is Moscow's defence ■ secret? Probably it is something along J the lines of Britain's radio location!