WINTER CAMPAIGN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24040, 11 August 1941, Page 7

WINTER CAMPAIGN

HITLER ORDERS PREPARATIONS

OFFENSIVE IN UKRAINE

GERMANS CLAIM RESOUNDING SUCCESS (Received August 10, 11.30 p.m.) LONDON. August 10 News leaked out from Berlin through foreign military attaches that Hitler has ordered his generals to prepare for a winter campaign in Russia, says the Sunday Express. The new timetable calls for the capture of Leningrad, Moscow and the Caucasus before October. It is now realised that even such a spectacular advance might fail to break the Red Army, and therefore Hitler plans to settle down for the winter on a defensive line running from Lake Ladoga along the west bank of the Volga to Astrakhan. Five million fur coats are being collected from all over Europe to protect the soldiers against the Russian blizzards. Turkey will be asked to permit the passage of German troops in October for a campaign against the British in the Middle East, the paper adds. The German claims of a spectacular victory in the Ukraine are treated with reserve in London, in the absence of a Russian version of the fighting. Both Russian and German sources agree that the fighting has been intensified in the past 48 hours. Germans Allege Huge Captures of Men and Material The German High Command issued a special communique claiming the first great success in the Ukraine. It said the Sixth, 12th, and part of the 18th Soviet Armies, totalling 25 divisions, had been destroyed, and that 103,000 prisoners, including the commanders of the Sixth and 12th Armies, fell into German hands. The Germans also claimed the capture of 3 1 7 tanks, 858 guns and vast quantities of war material. " The enemy suffered heavy and bloody losses, amounting so far to over 200,000 men," says the communique. " German forces captured Korosten, 90 miles north-west of Kiev, after a battle lasting several days in the dense forests and marshlands. Soviet forces encircled 60 miles south-east of Smolensk have been annihilated, and 38,000 prisoners, 250 tanks and armoured cars, and 359 guns have been captured. The German forces in Estonia have captured Turi, an important road and railway junction." Russian Defence of Kiev Still Holds No confirmation of Berlin's latest claims of successes in the southern and central sectors is contained in the Russian night communique. Similarly, no light is thrown on Helsinki's claim that a second great offensive is beginning north-east of Lake Ladoga. The Russian communique said intense battles were in progress yesterday in the three main sectors. Kiev is still holding out, and the campaign in this area appears to be developing into a campaign for the Odessa road and a German attempt to isolate Odessa. Reuter's special correspondent in Moscow says the sober tone of the Soviet communiques and their mentioning of principal place-names has created a good impression among foreign observers, and greater weight is attached to the Soviet "balancesheet " than to the German claims, which have so frequently proved extravagant, and if even half true, would make continuation of Soviet resistance inexplicable. Observers are impressed by the candid Russian admission of losses, which is regarded as a sign of strength. The Soviet Army's newspaper, the Red Star, reports that heavy losses have been inflicted on a further six German tank divisions and four infantry divisions on the western front. Intercepted German messages showed that the losses were from 20 to 40 per cent of some divisions. The Soviet Navy's newspaper, the Red Fleet, claims that since the outbreak of hostilities, Germany has lost 13 submarines, 10 destroyers, three patrol boats, two monitors, a trawler and over 30 transports, mostly in the Baltic.

SAILORS LANDED

BATTLE IN ESTONIA STRUGGLE FOR KIEV MAIN RAILWAY CUT (Reed. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, August 9 It is announced from Moscow that sailors of the Soviet Navy have taken up positions on the Estonian front and recaptured a village after a three-day battle in their first land encounter. The naval forces marched 50 miles into action, and an artillery duel preceded their attack with the bayonet. Soviet warships, in action in support of troops on the Baltic front, bombarded and destroyed a large concentration of Germans. The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says the Germans are assisting a new and determined Finnish attempt to reach Lake Ladoga with the view to applying the favourite German annihilation tactics against relatively large Russian forces, which the capture of Kexholm (Kakisalmi) would isolate. The Russians are-resisting stubbornly, and Finns so far have made only slight progress in any direction. The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says reports are in circulation that General Dietl, commanding the German offensive in the Murmansk region, has been killed in action. Progress in Ukraine Information reaching London is that there has been n® change on the central and northern parts of the Russian front, but in the Ukraine there are indications that the German forces are making more progress south of Kiev, in a south-easterly direction from Byelaya Tserkov, parallel with the right bank of the Dnieper. The main railway communications between Kiev and Odessa have been already cut, and a new move, which is regarded as a serious threat to the remaining railway running north from Odessa, appears to be aimed at cutting off Odessa and Nikolaev. The loss ot these places, however, would not have any serious effect on the Russian position, whether on land or in the Black Sea. River Serious Obstacle There is no confirmation of the German claim to have surrounded Kiev, and it is pointed out that the Dnieper is a very serious obstacle for tanks, being a mile wide below Kiev, with very few bridges. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph makes the definite assertion that the third German offensive has boen slowed down to a pace which must be causing the German High Command disappointment and anxiety. The correspondent says the Germans still hold tho_ initiative, but there is no diminution in Russian confidence that this latest German thrust will be as efficiently blunted as were the previous ones. AMERICANS FOR ICELAND LONDON, August 0 A Revkjavik message" states that a large iTnited States convoy, bringing further American troops, arrived in Iceland.

GERMAN GAINS

RUSSIAN TERRITORY i COMPARATIVE SMALLNESS NO IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE LONDON, August 8 The most lethal war in history has resulted so far, according to the correspondent of the Times on the German frontier, in the Germans occupying only one-tenth of European Russia, including a large amount of the territory Russia acquired since 1939. The German gains are only one-fortieth of Greater Russia and do not include a single main objective. Most of what the Germans hold the Russians relinquished with the object of withdrawing to positions most favourable for defence of the Soviet territories as a whole. The Russians have forced upon the Germans almost insoluble problems of supply and transport. The Russians' strategy is fundamentally to enforce a deadlock similar i to that of the last war. A long-drawn-out- winter .campaign must be fatal to Germany, adds the correspondent. The Germans are quite aware of the deadliness of the Russian tactics, hence their aim to prevent the struggle from congealing. The Wilhelmstrasse is therefore predicting that the battles about to begin will be far more immense and fiercer than anything so far. A successful CJerman attempt to reach Odessa might mean enormous Russian losses. The improving weather at present favours the German advance, but Marshal Btidenny's resistance everywhere is formidable. The Wilhelmstrasse appears to be very confident that this movement will show that the German army has not lost- its ability rapidly to over-run vast areas. RAID ON MOSCOW EIGHT BOMBERS SHOT DOWN (Reed. S.iiO p.m.) MOSCOW, August 10 The Soviet Information Bureau says German aircraft raided Moscow on Saturday night and dropped high explosives and incendiaries. At least eight German machines were shot down. The library of the Moscow Academy of Science, one of the largest in the world, containing 3.000,000 volumes, was hit by several dozen incendiary bombs in recent raids. Members of the library staff fought the incendiaries so effectively that not a single book was lost. A Soviet communique says that on Thursday 21 German aeroplanes were shot down by the Russian air force, which lost 14 machines. During daylight on Friday Soviet fighters brought down a German reconnaissance aeroplane in the vicinity of Moscow, and the crew were taken prisoners. FINLAND AS MONARCHY (Reed. 8.50 p.m.) LONDON, August 10 The Moscow radio quotes a Stockholm report that Germany is planning to transform Finland into a monarchy. Candidates for the throne would be either Prince Frederick Karl von Hessen or his elder son Philip.