1,380,000 DEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24147, 13 December 1941, Page 11

1,380,000 DEAD

REPORT OF NAZI LOSSES UNITS ANNIHILATED FINNS CLAIM SUCCESS (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12 Official Government sources disclose that field reports from actual observers in Russia estimate German casualties at 4,200,000, including 1,380,000 killed, says a Washington message. , A Moscow communique says that a Russian Guards unit in the Stalinogorsk sector, south-east of Tula, dislodged Germans from six populated centres, annihilated over 1000 officers and men, and captured 12 lorries and other war equipment. The Russians, in fierce battles on one sector of the front, captured 21 German tanks.

Change in Moscow Front Command The Moscow radio reports a statement by German soldiers taken prisoner 011 the Moscow front which indicates the huge losses in men and material suffered by the Nazis. The 10th German Tank Division, which consisted of 200 tanks, had lost about 160 or 170 tanks. Only eight soldiers survived in the Ist company, 2nd battalion, 86th regiment of this division, and in the 6th company there were only 20 survivors. The J.7th German Tank Division has lost on the Moscow front about half its tanks.

It is reliably reported that General von List has replaced General von Bock in command of the German forces on the Moscow front, says the Times Kuibyshev correspondent. It is noteworthy that von List is a representative of the Nazi Party rather than of the military group to which von Book belonged. Progress Round Jelets

So far 30 villages have been recaptured round Jeletz, south of Tula. This has relieved the threat to the important railway line from Moscow through Rhyazhsk southward. Jeletz was the most easterly point reached by the Germans. The Russians began the attack here after the capture of a German despatch rider who carried instructions for an enemy attack. Guerilla detachments are constantly attacking and ambushing von. Kleist's units which are retreating on the southern front.

A Helsinki message sayß the Finns in the Povyenets sector, north of Lake Onega, defeated three Soviet divisions and killed 8300.

PEACE PROPOSAL REPORTED NAZI OVERTURES ATTITUDE OF THE SOVIET (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 11 A Kuibyshev message quotes the official spokesman as saying that Hitler is seeking peace. Russia would grant this; only by agreement with Britain and America. DEFENDING AERODROMES LONDON, Dec. 11 The Under-Secretary for Air, Captain H. H. Balfour, answering a question in the House of Commons, affirmed that the whole of the ordinary ground personnel of the Royal Air Force aerodromes were armed and were receiving the training of soldiers so that in an emergency they would be able to do their share in the defence of their aerodromes.