ADVANCE CHECKED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 7

ADVANCE CHECKED

LENINGBAD SECTOR CLAIM BY RUSSIANS COUNTER-ATTACKS REPORTED (Reed. 8.10 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 21 The German advance has been stopped on the Leningrad front, says the Red Star. "The Germans have gone from attack to the defensive. The initiative is now in our hands. Our units are carrying out a number of counter-attacks and are pressing back the enemy." The newspaper announces that the Russians have recaptured the village and railway station of Pogostie, near Leningrad, after fierce fighting. The Russians are claimed to have killed 400 of the 800 Germans defending the village. The Moscow radio says that in the last few days Leningrad's anti-aircraft guns have shot down nearly 200 German aeroplanes. The German thrust against Murmansk also seems to have been brought to a standstill. Pravda says that after 100 days of fighting the Germans are not in the approaches f;o Murmansk, but far in the mountains beyond the mountain .pass. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Express reports that Royal Air Force units transferred from the Murmansk and Leningrad areas are now fighting in the battle for Moscow.

Information from Berlin indicates that the Germans have drawn reinforcements ffom the Leningrad region, including three or four tank divisions, which are now stationed mainly on the wing attacking Kalinin, Indicating the extreme German economy of forces anywhere except in major thrusts, the Times correspondent on the German frontier says the Baltic islands of Dago and Osel are still mainly held by the Russians. DEFENCE OF CAUCASUS ORGANISATION BY WAVELL ITALIAN PAPER'S REPORT LONDON, Oct. 20 A message from Zurich quotes the Italian newspaper La Stampa as saying General Sir Archibald Wavell is now busy on defence fortifications extending over the almost unconquerable chain of the Caucasus mountains, along the Black Sea coast to southern Caucasia to Batum, and along the Caspian Sea to Baku.

The newspaper adds that General Wavell obviously considers it possible that the Axis will make a frontal attack through the Caucasus mountains, combined with land and sea attacks. The fact has been established that he is transporting large quantities of war material to northern Iran, Georgia, in south Russia, and Azerbaijan, in the extreme north-west of Iran.

Mr. Richard Dimbleby, the British Broadcasting Corporation's observer, says that it is believed in Ankara that the Germans will soon make a drive south to the Caucasus Mountains. At present it is a race against time to prepare the defences in this area, materials being rushed through Iran, while the enemy is attempting to smash a way through the Moscow line. ROTARY IN EXILE INTER-ALLIED "OUTPOST" (Reed. 0.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 20 The United States Ambassador to the Allied Governments in London, Mr. Drexel Biddle, was entertained by the Inter-Allied Rotary Outpost at its first "birthday" luncheon at the headquarters of the Overseas League. Rotarians from five Allied countries— Belgium, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, the Netherlands and the Free French — were present. Mr. Biddle commended the Outpost on its work during the 12 months it has been in existence. The chairman of the Outpost, Mr. James Ryan, said it was hoped that from the Outpost there would emerge an international organisation which would be officially recognised by all Allied Government's whose nationals were members.