ATTEMPT TO ENCIRCLE KIEV

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 5 August 1941, Page 6

ATTEMPT TO ENCIRCLE KIEV

FURIOUS BATTLE STILL RAGING Activity on Other Fronts STRONG RUSSIAN RESISTANCE (Rec. 1.55 p.m.) London, Aug. 4 While interest in the Russo-German struggle is for ihe moment centred on the Germans’ new desperate onslaught in the Ukraine aiming to isolate Kiev and also Odessa, there is increasing evidence that the invaders are preparing for a third instalment of their drive against Leningrad and Moscow. The military correspondent of the Stockholm "Social Demokraten” says that arrangements are already completed to relieve the exhausted German troops, reorganise the hard-tried units, and also overhaul mechanical material. Ihe correspondent adds that despite attacks against their communications the Russians have also benefited from the pause, but the Germans are claiming that fresh Russian troops are of inferior quality.

The tury of the battle in the hills south-westward of Kiev betokens the importance the German High Command is attaching to the encirclement of the Ukrainian capital: but according to Helsinki dispatches the Germans are also fiercely attempting to break Soviet resistance on the Leningrad road eastward of Lake Peipus, while the Finns are still trying to force a way between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. German statements continue to describe how Soviet forces are increasingly compressed by an iron ring, but even German sources testify to the Russians’ curious capacity for fighting weeks on end after being, theoretically, obliterated. IN THE NORTH The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says the Germans in the northernmost sector are still floundering or or about Lizariver, which was reached a month ago in the first blitz against Murmansk. It proved very

difficult, if not impossible, to move heavy traffic across the country, be- ! cause the dried crust cracks easily and | norridge-like mud oozes from seeming- !> bottomless depths. General Dietl i cannot travel “light” with any chance ; ol success against the Russians’ well- | placed defences. i German claims to have destroyed the j Russian air forces an i bases in this area were exaggerated . because the Germans now mention Russian bombj ers operating from the Murmansk base, j General Lietl's forces operating against j Murmansk consist entirely of Aus- | trians and Germans. The Germans j outnumber the Finns on the Salla I front, where initial pi ogress was j achieved only at the cost of heavy losses. The Germans’ subsequent efforts were checked. General Siilavuo commands the Finnish forces, and is driving towards the White Sea exit of the canal from Leningrad.—U.P A.