FLANKING MOVE BY GERMANS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 5

FLANKING MOVE BY GERMANS

OFFENSIVE IN THE SOUTH ENEMY HELD ON OTHER SECTORS (Rec. 9.30 a.rti. ) London, .Aug. 3. An enemy advance on the Ukraine front is announced in a Soviet communique this morning. It states: “We engaged the enemy yesterday in the Porkhov, Smolensk, Korostyshev and ByelayaTserkov regions and also in the Estonian sector. Engagements else where were of a local character.” Byelaya-Tserkov is on a railway 4 3 miles south south west of Kiev, and Korostyshev is 85 miles north-west of Kiev. It would seem that the enemy are attempting a Banking movement against the obstinate Russian resistance at Jitomir (85 miles west of Kiev), which for some time they have been unable to break by direct attacks. A correspondent in Ankara says that this move in the Ukraine may be the beginning of a third German offensive at the opening of the seventh week of the campaign, but there is no evidence yet of a general offensive. It is indicated that the enemy continue to be held elsewhere. I he deputy chief of the Soviet Information Bureau. M. Lozovsky. issued also the following communique: “We have smashed Germany’s crack shock divisions. The Reichswehr is bogged and is suffering immense loss in men and material, and the fighting daily hastens the defeat of Germany. Ihe German and Axis troops on the Russian front are estimated at 248 divisions [probably about 3.750,000 men], including 30 armoured divisions. Hitler’s timetable envisaged the capture of Moscow in three weeks. The German casualties in the six weeks exceed 1.500.000. with desertions increasing.” A Berlin communique yesterday stated: “German troops struck deep into the enemy retreating in the Ukraine, and a further great battle of annihilation is proceeding south of Kiev’. The Soviet divisions encircled east of Smolensk have been further compressed. The Luftwaffe last night bombed public utility works and military installations in Moscow and railway junctions in the upper Volga district and the southern Ukraine.’

The Berlin correspondent of the i British United Press reported that | German officials admitted on Ist Aug- j ust that the Russians were counter-at- i tacking heavily on all fronts from j Lake Ladoga to the Black Sea. A Moscow message yesterday stated j triat the Russian counter-attacks wiped ! cut one German regiment after another | cn the key fronts where the thrusts are aimed at Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. Fresh Soviet troops were being thrown ; into the battle, and each hour the coun-ter-attacks gained in ferocity and vio- < lence. The German 137th Infantry Division was encircled and destroyed. Letters which were found at a captured German postal station revealed the severity of the enemy losses and pessimism regarding a German victory. The Berlin news agency on Ist August claimed that Russian tank units were thrown back when attempting to break through north-east of Smolensk, where they were encircled. The Germans claimed to have smashed encircled Soviet detachments south of | Smolensk after heavy fighting. The j Russians, it was said, lost tens of ! thousands in killed and 35.000 troops ; who were taken prisoner. A Hungarian communique stated that German and Russian troops in the southern sector encircled and destroyed a Soviet division. The Milan newspaper “Popolo oTtalia” published a dispatch from the Ukraine frontier claiming that the Rumanians captured Tisapol (a few miles inside the old Soviet border on | the railway line to Odessa. 50 miles ; east), while the fall of Odessa was said ! tc be imminent. ACTIONS IN BALTIC A Finnish communique to-day state.-, that Russian ships attempted to shell the northern and eastern coasts of Lake Lagoda, and also the island of Mansinaari, ofl Salmi, but they were driven back. Helsinki earlier claimed that three Russian transports were sunk otf Hanko by artillery. The Finnish air force, it was stated, again interrupted the Murmansk railway at several places, and also sank a 1000-ton ship. Finnish troops, particularly fast, light divisions, with cyclists, continue to advance east of Lake Ladoga, and were crossin vast forest zones which had been set on fire by fleeing Soviet forces. Berlin radio referred to strong Russian counter-attacks on the Karelian front, and the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times’’ confirmed that there is increased Russian activity on the Karelian Isthmus. He said that there hod been no appreciable change northward of Lake Ladoga in the past fortnight. The Russians have beer, reinforced at Hanko. where heavy artillery duels e.re taking place. They are also holding Baitiski, easily controlling the 50mile entrance to the Gulf of Finland. The fact that they are able to reinforce Hanko shows that the Russians are the masters o- these waters. CONVOY INTERCEPTED M. Lozovsky’s communique to-day added that the Russian naval and air forces attacked a German convoy in the Baltic, comprising eight transports and five destroyers. One transport and cr>e destroyer were sunk and one transport and two destroyers were damaged and forced to turn back. The Russian air force, it was stated, ck-alt heavy blows at panzer units, infantry and artillery along the front \esterday. Forty-one enemy planes were shot down on Ist August for the loss of 19 Soviet planes. Moscow reported that only three or four German planes succeeded in penetrating the city’s defences on the night of Ist August, They dropped incendiary bombs, which were quickly dealt with. Two raiders were shot down. GUERRILLA WARFARE Scores of Russian technicians have been recalled from China, where they directed Chungking’s successful “scorched earth” policy and guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. They are now leading Russia’s army of saboteurs and guerrillas behind the German lines. The military correspondent of “The Times” says that Marshal Budenny is cropping parachutists nightly behind the German lines in the Ukraine, thus tt-placing snipers, sabotv-urs. and gueirillas as fast as they ai mopped up SOVIET SUBMARINES The Berlin correspondent ol the Swedish “Social Demokraten” says that military circles in Beilin are discussing the possibility of Soviet submarines being moved from the Baltic Sea to Murmansk an 1 other Arctic ports through the Stalin Canal. It ithought probable that they will seek to use British bases ir. order to collaborate with the British Navy m the North Atlantic. —U.P.A. TA British Press report several weeks ago stated that a large number of submarines had already moved north through the canal.) INITIATIVE STILL WITH NAZIS Rugby, Aug 2. Though there is little news at the time of writing of changes on the Russian front, it is pointe ’ out in competent circles in London that the initiative

i still rests with the Germans. The Rus- | sian counter-attacks, though some have ! been extremely successful, are loca j defensive measures, and there is nc suggestion of a counter-offensive. | The main object of such attacks i: ; to stop the German advance, because I that must be accomplished before the Russians themselves could successfullj undertake a counter-offensive. Nc doubt a certain amount of time —ir j fact, some weeks—would be needed foi such preparations by the Russian: forces, but it is thought probable tha a Russian effort might be timed to take place before the Germans can organise their great onslaught. UKRAINIAN WHEAT HARVESTED Reports here suggest that the Russian hold-up of the Germans in the south has enabled the Ukrainian whea harvest to be brought in successfully and German military experts are statec to have admitted: “The Ukrainian har- { vest will have to be abandoned till nex j year.” j At the same time neutral report: ' speak of appalling German casualties : with hospitals crowded and loadec ! trains arriving in German towns in : steady procession filled with woundec soldiers. High fees are being offered t< Swedish doctors to cross into German: fur a few months, and even weeks, tc heln deal with the casualties.—8.0. W