DEFENCE OF MOSCOW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 13 October 1941, Page 5

DEFENCE OF MOSCOW

DENSE forest crowded with SOLDIERS RUSSIAN ARMIES WILL FIGHT VIEWS OF MR V BARTLETT Rugby, Oct.. 11. Mr Vernon Bartlett, M.P., broadcasting a news postcript to-night, said: “I must say how astonished I am on returning to England from Russia to meet so many people who seem ready to take Hitler’s boastings at their face value. I am not fool to suggest that things are not serious, but all along we have urged that the Russians must keep their armies intact, however far they have to retreat in order to do so. "The miles of sour, water-logged land they have so far had to abandon on the Smolensk front are not going to decide the war. Between Viazma and Moscow there is about 130 miles of dense forest, crowded with soldiers. There are a good many tank traps and so on, and the Russians are so good at concealing themselves that I can give nc. estimate at all as to the amount of artillery, etc. that is still avail able to defend the capital. “There is one wide highroad and a series of narrow, unpaved tracks already very deep in mud. Otherwise there is this forest, with the trees so close together that no tank could force its way between them. That should not be very difficulty country to defend, and unless there has been an almost unbelievable collapse in the Soviet morale in the last week, I am confident that vast armies in Russia are still determined to defend it ” 8.0. W.