STRIKING BACK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24101, 21 October 1941, Page 7

STRIKING BACK

DEFENDEKS OF MOSCOW RESERVES SENT FORWARD ANGLO-AMERICAN AID (Reed. 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, Oct.. 20 The Russians are counter-attack-ing in the centre and on both wings of the central front, and their ability to do so is regarded as a sign that they have not been so thoroughly mauled as the Germans have claimed.

The Moscow radio to-day said: "The Soviet army still holds back the enemy on the central front and continues to pierce the German ring and to join the main forces." The announcer, describing the position around Maloyaroslavets, said the Germans had attempted to turn the Russian flanks, but encountered strong defences and were unable to make further progress. t Courageous Home Guards The Moscow newspaper Pravda says Russian reserves drawn from the whole of uncaptured Russia, and also tanks and aeroplanes from Britain and America, are being sent to the front. The most important Russian counterattacks are in the northern sector, where sanguinary fighting is proceeding for a town referred to as "K, which is not necessarily Kalinin.

Pravda states tliat Russian units, supported by Home Guards, are fighting courageously in the streets and continue to inflict terrific losses on the Germans in attacks against a station held bv the Germans. The Germans had no sooner cleared the corpses from the station than it was again covered with dead and wounded. At least 1500 of the enemy were killed in the town itself. Driven from Three Towns The Soviet military journal Red Star claims that the Germans have been expelled from three unnamed towns on the north sector of the central front, and savs Russian tanks and rifie units are reported to havo frustrated the plans of the commander of the 7th Gorman Division to insert a wedge between the Russian forces operating along the main highway between Ka.linin and Moscow, where the Russians threw back the Germans from one town. These Russian forces are now stated to be striking against the flank of the enemy formations holding the Kalinin area. Around Vyazma, where the Russians still iirmlv hold the main road to Moscow, the Germans have been attempting flank attacks aimed at driving a wedge into the Russian lines. Referring to these attacks the Moscow radio merely remarked that the enemy's intentions were frustrated.