EARLIER LULL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24141, 6 December 1941, Page 11

EARLIER LULL

FLANKS OF MOSCOW MENACE FROM WEST PREPARING NEW ONSLAUGHT (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4 The Soviet newspaper Pravda said German pressure was decreasing on the flanks of the Moscow front. The Germans round Klin were on the defensive and were digging in, while round Volokalamsk the Russians at some points had pushed back the Germans. - Although the invaders here and there had advanced, the most serious menace then existed in the Mojaisk region, west of the capital, where the enemy had achieved a considerable advance since his movement to outflank the Russian defenders. i The Times correspondent in Stockholm said Russian territorial gains to the east and west of Tula this week, and also on the Kalinin wing, northwest of the city, were much greater than the German gains on the middle of the Moscow front, but the German advances, being nearer to Moscow, counted more than those of the Russians on the more distant flanks. The Germans were believed to be preparing for a new onslaught against the flanks of the capital's defence. It was announced that the Red Army had recaptured the important city of "K" and four villages. A later message indicated that "K" was northward of Stalinogorsk. Russian attacks here had succeeded in clearing the Germans 12 to 20 miles from "K." A further report stated that General Guderian, German tank commander, was bringing up fresh troops for another drive northward of Stalinogorsk, at Kashira. TOUR TO MOSCOW p j INVITATION FROM GERMANS JOURNALISTS DISAPPOINTED (Reed. 6.35 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4 The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says the German authorities in October invited an impressive number of Danish journalists to undertake a conducted tou# to Moscow at the cost of the German Exchequer. Danish provincial jiress representatives assembled at Copenhagen, but their departure for Moscow was postr poned for a week, after which the journey was postponed for a further fortnight. At the end of November, the Germans postponed the project indefinitely. This abortive enterprise, which is never mentioned now except privately, shows how unsatisfactory and contrary to plan are the German operations against Moscow. The German Strength Through Joy movement, perhaps inadvertently, has thrown some light for the German people on the great number of German casualties by announcing that it, alone, has cared for 1,500,000 wounded soldiers since 1939.