DEFENCE OF MOSCOW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 29 October 1941, Page 5

DEFENCE OF MOSCOW

ENEMY FORCES PUSHED BACK Relentless Pressure in Ukraine NEW RUSSIAN LINE ALONG THE DON

(Kec. 11. 10 a.m.) London, Oct. 2tt. Moscow broadcast messages state that operations on the 26th and 2 7th October were conspicuous for Russian counter-attacks. 1 .Soviet units are increasingly taking the initiative. In several counterattacks they forced the enemy to retreat in a number of sectors. Ihe Germans in front of Moscow are meeting with iron resistance. In . the course of an attempt to break through to the town in the north . tlie Germans concentrated strong forces. Fighting started on the night of 26th October and lasted all the following day and it was . only at the cost of heavy casualties that the enemy succeeded in ! occupying several lines of minor importance. Next morning the battle again flared up and three German regiments were thrown against the Russians in an attempt to take a road leading into the lown, but all these attacks were repelled and further German forces I were wiped out. In the Mojaisk sector the Russians forced the enemy back. I.arlier messages Ironj Moscow last night stated that all the German advances had been halted, and to-day Moscow radio also I gives the impression that the situation is rather easier, though the ravage struggle continues. The radio stated that the most threatening German thrusts are being firmly held. At some points, after fierce hand-to-hand fighting the enemy were forced back at the point of the bayonet. Ihe following order of the day was issued yesterday to the , defenders of Moscow by General Zhukov, commander-in-chief of ! the northern and central sectors: ‘Not a step back! Infantrymen, seek out the enemy tanks and destroy them; comrades, into battle! Ihe Kuibyshev correspondent of the British United Press says . that German bombers are raiding Moscow day and night, according l to telephone reports from the capital. Besides dropping explosives ; and incendiary bombs, the raiders are showering the city with leaflets , demanding its surrender and threatening <sire consequences if it continues its defiance. Other messages say that the bus, train and tube services are all operating normally. 1 heatres and cinemas are still open, and more than 200 new provision shops have been opened to ensure that the . people have enough to eat. In many streets, anti-tank defences have been erected. “To-night’s news from the Moscow front is reassuring, with reports of Soviet counter-attacks in all directions, but the time has come to lace the unpleasant truth that Russia, has now lost the industrial riches of the Donetz basin, says the Daily I elegraph s Stockholm correspondent. Slowly but relentlessly, he states, F‘ leld-Marshal Rundstedt’s 15,000 tanks and 2,000,000 men are smashing through the eastern Ukraine. As these Germans lorce their way eastward. Marshal I imoxhenko has organised a new line along the River Don at least as ( strong as the Dnieper line. Timoshenko’s line runs from the Sea of Azov to Rostov, thence along the Don to Stalingrad, and thence ’ along the Volga to Saratov, where the first units of Budenny's and Voroshilov’s new armies are already taking up positions.

Marshal Timoshenko’s main strength -> is naturally massed behind Rostov, and I ! it estimated that 1.000.000 men arc | , the advance guard for the Caucasus. | _> The marshal, if desperately pressed, may j destroy the xluices of a number of , hydro-elcctrie power stations which are within 50 miles of Rostov, thus eon- j I fronting the Germans with a raging , winter torrent which the recent rains would make all the more impossible to | s cross if the three main bridges across " the Don at Rostov are blown up. GERMAN TANK ATTACKS REPULSED e A Russian communique states: “Our 1 I troops vesterd;..\ and last night engaged the enemy in tlie directions of Mo-jai.-k, Malo-Yaroslavet. Kharkov and Taganrog. It is established that 39 German planes were destroyed on 25th October not 27 as previously stated, j Eight enemy planes were brought down near Moscow yesterday. One ol our _ units operating in one sector of the central front successfully repulsed two attacks by German tank columns con- , sisting of over 80 tanks. Our men ap- ( s plied skilfully the methods of lighting : s against tanks and destroyed 42 of them, j Attempts by German planes to support the columns were unsuccessful. , Eight enemy planes were shot down by our A.A. fire. In one of the sectors .. of the south-western front our units, inflicted heavy losses on German troops | who attempted to break through our ( lines of defence. In two days’ lighting 700 German officers and men were kill - t ed in front of our positions. Some groups of Nazi soldiers who broke , ; through the defence lines of our posis tion were surrounded and completely annihilated. Our troops captured 5 j e enemy tanks. 9 guns. 22 motor mortars, s 00 automatic rifles and a large quantity 0 of ammunition.” KIIARKOV LNDANGLRED 0 Moscow radio announced: “Under : s ; pressure of fresh German reinforcements near Kharkov, the Soviet troops carried out a slight withdrawal. The town is now endangered. The German : losses are exceptionally heavy. On one day alone in tlie approaches to Kharkov about 3500 enemy officers and men i. were killed and wounded, u The Germans, declares Vichy radio, s j are about. 20 miles from Moscow, j The Russians are maintaining successful counter-hammering at the 1 Germans outside Moscow, says Moscow 1 radio, which adds: "Hour after hour { hand-to-hand fighting is going on. The Germans are no' only being held but are being pushed back at one or two i points. The railway station and elec trie power station in one town changed hands several times til! finally tlie Russians ousted the enemy in a suc--1 cession of bayonet charges.” [) ! The radio says that tlie great t j struggle for Kalinin lias been raging ! for 10 days and nighis without rc.s _ i pile in rain and appalling weather. _ | House-to-house and streel-to-street P fighting is still proceeding. s The war correspondent of the ?.los . j cow “Red Star” states that at least 15,000 Germans have been killed and i , j wounded in six weeks’ fighting on the j ’’ j front south of Leningrad in the vicin- , 1 i ity of Novgorod and Lake Ilmen. In ! : two days’ fighting alone two German ’ | infantry divisions lost 2300 killed and I I wounded.- —8.0. W. and U.P.A. i i I

house is a live volcano under which may be hidden tons of explosives ready ito blow up at any moment. Even now T there are new disasters daily—new i explosions in houses which were con‘jsidered safe and were accommodating '! German officials. : j "When the Germans stormed Kiev A block by block fairly large five were ’ ■ raging in the electric power station. ; the telephone building, the great Stan!J- ostroi works and other vital factories, but the Germans thought they had managed to yet the fires under ;control. Then two w y: iatei hell broke ‘' loose. 1 "It started when a terrific explo.- ion blew Kiev’s citadel to smithereens, alter i which six-stories houses and gigantic • stores began going up in the air and i i; vgo fires broke out throughout the . city. Bottles of petrol hidden under i floors and behind walls spread the fire with every new explosion. "It will be years before this once proud city can repair destruction that is so complete.'