RESISTANCE STIFFENING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24132, 26 November 1941, Page 7

RESISTANCE STIFFENING

HORDES OF GERMAN TROOPS AND TANKS (Received November 26, 11.87 p.m.) LONDON, Not. 25 Bitter fighting continues on the entire Russian front, with the Russians' resistance stiffening as the danger to Moscow increases. The midnight Moscow communique does not mention any substantial changes in the situation. It was reported earlier that the Russians were being slowlypushed back at a number of points. Heavy snow has fallen on the front and Moscow itself is deep in snow. Moscow radio said to-day that the Red Army had gathered its full strength to hold the enemy off the capital, the danger to which was admitted to be very great. Enemy pressure at Volokalamsk and Klin, north-west of Moscow, was increasing. The Soviet troops were receiving reinforcements and doing their utmost to hold the enemy. The radio further reported that, in spite of stubborn resistance and the heaviest losses of men and material by the enemy, the situation to the south-east of Tula remained most serious. In the Klin area the Germans are throwing in increasing, numbers of tanks and troops, and are gradually pushing toward the city. There is no, confirmation of a German claim to have reached a point 30 miles north-west of the capital. Hitler has thrown 1,000,000 infantrymen and over 10,000 tanks into the battle for Moscow, says the Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The Russian newspaper Pravda says three tank divisions from General Rommel's Africa Corps are operating on the Moscow front, where the Germans are employing all their available reserves. According to the Soviet Army journal Red Star, 40 German divisions, including half of all the tanks available to the High Command, are being thrown into an "all-out" offensive against Moscow. The Russian Tass agency states that m the north-western and southern sectors the battlefield is covered with scores of crippled tanks, hundreds of burned-out lorries and thousands of dead. The situation is described as very tense.