CRIMEA ISOLATED BY LAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 23 September 1941, Page 6

CRIMEA ISOLATED BY LAND

Stubborn Defence by Russians DESPERATE FIGHTING ON WHOLE FRONT (Rec. 1.20 p.m.) London, Sept. 22. Desperate fighting continues unremittingly along the whole Eastern f ront, but except at a few points the Germans are not advancing because the task of consolidating their gains claims first attention. The correspondent of “The Times” on the German frontier says a notable exception to the slowed down advance is at Mariupol, where the Germans report they met no serious resistance, and therefore expect to reach Rostov without difficulty. 1 he Germans are proclaiming exultingly that this proves what has often been reported recently, namely, Russian resistance is weakening, indicating that the German High Command tactics — to exhaust the Russian reserves of highly trained men and capture and destroy war material are compelling the Russians to use half-trained troops for further operations, thereby lessening the danger to the Germans of the inherent inexhaustibility of Russian manpower. Neither side has issued very inform-.

ative reports of the fighting in the Leningrad area, which indicates that the Germans are having no further successes. General Timoshenko’s efforts to relieve Leningrad by ( ounter-attacking further south have been successful insofar as General von Leeb was forced to hastily send General von Bock reinforcements, thus reducing the pressure against the belt of Leningrad forts. This reduction in the p'ressure enabled Marshal Voroshilov's besieged forces to drive out the German attackers from certain positions in the fort belt, but Marshal Voroshilov is not strong enough to break through. The Moscow radio said that after one Soviet counter-attack with bayonets the Germans fell back seven and a-half miles. The correspondent of “The Times” on the German frontier says Marshal Budenny, following his customary tactics, is making superhuman efforts to break through the German forces eastwards of Kiev with the greater part of his armies, while leaving enough to keep the Germans cleaning up for a considerable time, thereby increasing the main body's chances of escape before the Germans strengthen the ring and it is unbreakable. General von Rundstedt's drive to Azov has completely isolated the Crimea by land, but the Russians are stubbornly defending the very powerfi 1 Crimean fortifications. Military commentators ii- Berlin do not believe that the great part of Marshal Budenny’s forces have been cut off in the Crimea, presuming that the main body has withdrawn for the defence of Kharkhov and Rostov. ODESSA STILL HOLDING OUT Odessa is still hurling back the attackers although according to reports from Rome the Rumanians after heavy fighting have now captured Ovidiopol and are advancing along the coast towards Odessa. Britishers were included in a party of non-Russian journalists who were taken to the front for the first time and toured territory in the Smolensk region re captured by the Russians. They visited the battlefield of Yelnia. where the Germans were driven twelve miles westward of the town and are still retreating after eight divisions had been badly mauled. They also saw the scene of the Yartsevo victory, where the Russians regained 6 to 10 miles along a sixty miles salient after destroying or crippling ten divisions. Reuter's correspondent says the recaptured piece of Russia contains many “guernicas” destroyed by the Germans in terror raids, also villages flattened out by shellfire and the graves of thousands of Russian and German soldiers. When the Germans on the night of 4th September decided to evacuate Yelnia they ordered the few remaining inhabitants to assemble inside a church which was then locked, after which the Germans systematically set fire to every, house. Thus Yelnia was an inferno when the Russian troops re-entered.— U.P.A.