STALIN'S ORDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24050, 22 August 1941, Page 7

STALIN'S ORDER

VAST FLOOD IN CENTRAL UKRAINE GERMANS IN DEADLY PERIL SAVING INDUSTRIES FROM INVADERS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received August 21, .11.30 p.m.) ' LO XOOX, A „s„st 21 Operating under cover of darkness, Marshal Budenny's engineers dynamited and utterly destroyed the gigantic LeninDnjeproges (Dnieprostroy) dam at Zaporoje, on which depends the whole of the industrial district of the Central Ukraine. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says Marshal Budenny, after a personal telephone call from Stalin, took this desperate step, which will have an immense strategical effect on the southern battlefields. Allied circles in Stockholm attach the greatest importance to the news that the Russians have deliberately wrecked the mighty barrage. The Russians, in the event of retreat, have thus ensured that not a particle of the Ukraine s precious industries will fall into German hands in working or workable order. Zaporoje means beyond the rapids," and the whole of the Upper Dnieper as far as Kiev will now be converted into a swirling flood, unnavigable by boats, and the German forces will be in deadly peril of being swept away. , Half Million of Budenny's Force Reported Safe The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Mail reports that before the blowing-up of the dam Marshal Budenny told Stalin by telephone from his Kiev headquarters that he had got nearly 500,000 men across the Dnieper. "Good! Then blow up the dam! " ordered Stalin. The dam, which was begun in 1929 and took four years to build, was the greatest piece of Soviet construction, and was justly considered one of the world s most impressive engineering masterpieces. Engineers first wrecked the machinery operating the barrage, and then dynamiters laid charges at the base of the dam. A series of dull explosions followed and then, with a mighty roar, the millions of tons of pent-up water burst through, carrying off masses of masonry and throwing spray hundreds of feet high. Thousands of German troops, fleeing Russian peasants and straggling Soviet soldiery trying to gain the river's eastern banks are believed to have been engulfed. From now on, the Soviet must largely depend on the new industries it has established in the Ural Mountains. Germans Attacking Odessa Heavy fighting continued yesterday in the Kingisepp, Novgorod and Staraya Russa sectors. Stubborn fighting also took place in the Gomel sector. In the Smolensk area the Germans are reported to have fortified their advanced positions as if they have become reconciled to a period of trench warfare. News of the fighting in the Ukraine is scanty. An Ankara report states that both the Russians and Germans are digging in j on both sides of the Dnieper. Another report states that the 1 Germans have so far failed to cross the river. The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says it is reported | that the Russians have already succeeded in evacuating 100,000 : troops from encircled Odessa, which, according to the Wilhelcnstrasse, the Germans are now attacking. Swedish reports last night stated that the Germans had J penetrated the outer defences of Odessa. It is reported from Moscow, however, that the city is being well defended, and is t being effectively supplied from the sea in spite of enemy dive- ' bombing attacks. j