VAGUE CLAIMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 24032, 1 August 1941, Page 7

VAGUE CLAIMS

GERMAN SUCCESSES LITTLE REAL PROGRESS RUMANIA FULL OF WOUNDED « LONDON, July 31 The German communique yesterday stated : "We have repelled renewed enemy attacks to relieve the pressure and thus liberate their encircled forces east of Smolensk." The Germans, who continue to promise important decisions very soon, claim that their supply lines are established on the Moscow road, far east from Smolensk, but it seems that they have been held in this area and are actually suffering severe punishment from Marshal Timoslienko's legions. The Germans also claim that the pressure on Leningrad is increasing, but the only evidence they can produce is a vague mention of successes northwest and north of Lake Peipus. Claims regarding German progress on the southern front are similarly vague, mentioning fighting south of the Bug Hirer.

The claim is made that German and Finnish troops have advanced on the Finnish front after violent lighting, in spite of the Russians having set fire tp forests.

The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says the Finns and the Germans are creeping forward on both sides of Lake Ladogy, hut neither Olonez nor the Baltic-White Sea canal is threatened, and the Russians, who are believed to have adequate forces to meet anything the Germans and I'inns can bring up, still hold the greater part of both the eastern and western shores of Lake. Ladoga. The Finns in the drive toward Petrozavodsk are not more than one-third of the distance across the isthmus between Ladoga and Onega, and are now in country where groups of lakes and streams favour the defence. Only fancy and small-scale maps can suggest any sort of real threat to Leningrad, considering tha large Russian forces and the defendable nature of the terrain.

According to a report received in Vichy irom Bucharest, over 300 military hospitals in the interior of Rumania contain (30,000 wounded. The figure does not include German wounded on front-line hospitals.

OIL FIELDS DEVASTATED RUSSIAN AIR RAIDS LONDON, July 31 The Moscow radio says a political refugee from Rumania confirmed reports of terrific damage done in the Rumanian oil fields at l'loesti. Over a million tons of oil in storage tanks was destroyed by tire as the result of the Red Air Force's raids, which are still going on almost daily. Many refineries have been completely destroyed and derricks damaged. The oilfields burned lor four weeks and the glow of their fires and the pall of smoke provided an oasv target for the bombers. The oilfields will bo unable to provide more than half their usual output for at least six months, even if there are no more raids. Large oil depots have been destroyed in Constanza. and saboteurs have added to the damage. The German High Command has been forced to rely on old stocks of synthetic oil. It has stopped the export of oil to Turkey by forcing the repudiation of the Turko-ltumaniau agreement.