STRONGEST BID

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24131, 25 November 1941, Page 7

STRONGEST BID

THRUST FOR MOSCOW NAZIS WATCH WEATHER VERY HEAVY FIGHTING LONDON. Nov. 23 No decisive results appear to have been achieved by the Germans in what is reported to be the heaviest offensive j r et mounted against Moscow. The Soviet mid-day communique merely states that during | the night fighting took place along | the whole front.

Exceptionally heavy fighting has been proceeding during tlie past four days, with the Germans making frantic endeavours to capture Moscow before the height of the winter is reached. The Tass news agency reports that both sides are using cavalry on the Tula front. The German cavalry arrived with the latest batch of reinforcements and has already taken part in the fighting. The Germans are continually sending up reinforcements and throwing in more tanks. German tanks and infantry are keeping up the pressure. The newspaper Pravda says the Germans have again succeeded in making some advance in the Volokalamsk, the Mojaisk directions, and in the area south-eastward of Tula. German tanks pierced the Russian lines in the Tula sector, but were halted on the outskirts of the town.

The Germans are persistently attacking along tho Volokalamsk highway, where effective Russian counter-action has stemmed the drive. German attempts more southward to cross the River Naro have again failed, with heavy casualties. To the south, heavy fighting is proceeding in the direction of Kursk, where the Germans have brought up large tank forces and have succeeded slightly in advancing. The Russians cut up three battalions of infantry, and Russian infantry, strongly supported by artillery, captured several villages on the southern sector of the Kursk front.

The Moscow journal Izvestia says Russian troops are forcing their way toward the River "T" on a sector to which the Germans attach great importance. The Germans here concentrated picked troops and massed guns, but the accurate Russian artillery fire destroyed the German bases. The Russian newspaper Pravda states that 600 German aeroplanes have been shot down at the approaches to Moscow. A Moscow communique says the Spanish Blue Division in its first engagement suffered tremendous losses and many soldiers attempted to desert.