CLOSING RINGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24216, 6 March 1942, Page 5

CLOSING RINGS

GERMAN ARMIES' FATE RELENTLESS PRESSURE RUSSIA MASSING TROOPS PLANS FOR ALL-OUT BLOW (Reed. 8.15 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 4 General Guderian has refused General Boldin's demand for the surrender of Orel after almost complete Russian encirclement, says the Daily Telegraph's Stockholm correspondent. The ultimatum was conveyed by two officers in a 52ton tank carrying a white flag. An hour after the departure of the Russian emissaries the guns of the Red Army opened an offensive against Orel. / The Times' correspondent at Stockholm says the encircled German Army at Staraya Russa is still fighting for its life. The Russians are vigorously maintaining a land and air blockade. Both sides have probably been reinforced, the Russians from the Valdai Hills and the Germans from the Baltic ' States. If the Germans are forced back they will probably be compelled to evacuate the Leningrad area to avoid being trapped. The strength of the Russians in the Lake Hmen area suggests, that this is the Russian strategy. The Russians are now moving across the Lake Ilmen ice. Effective Air Offensive The Moscow radio says 51 Bupply aeroplanes for the Germans in Staraya Russa have been shot down in the last 10 days, w,hile the Russians are incessantly bombing aeroplane bases. Only 60,000 Germans now remain of . the original 96,000 trapped in this area, asys a Stockholm message. There are 100 German staff officers in Staraya Russa. The German troops are starving and many have had no food for six days. German prisoners taken in the Staraya Russa area describe the position of the German 16th Army as catastrophic. The Russians yesterday destroyed more than 50 aircraft on enemy-occupied aerodromes. "Voluntary surrender alone can save the German troops from complete disaster," states the Moscow" radio. Two Battalions Wiped Out The Russians on the Smolensk front, in a battle for an important populated place, wiped cut jjwo battalions of infantry. .J'" The Times' correspondent in Moscow reveals that Russian parachutists are infiltrating to the' enemy's rear and linking up with guerillas. Russian marines have captured a strongly-defended height in the Sebastopol area. The German radio admits * a Russian success in this area, but says that the troops defeated were Rumanians. According to messages from. Switzerland, Russians are massing all their forces for an all-out blow at the Ger- . mans. German aerial reconnaissance gives the same picture as war reporters have repeatedly pointed out —the massing of troops on the Russian side of the front under the protection: of the Red Air Force, and movements on all railway lines and supply lines to-the front. This means that the German Air Force has to devote almost its entire energy to an attempt to disrupt communications. The Moscow newspaper Pravda says a big batch of trained Russian reserves is now ready jfco go into action. They will be used "to deal a final blow at the retreating Germans. Success on Leningrad Front The Russian political commissar, M. Korobko, announced that the German defences on the Leningrad front have been broken at two vital points. The Russians in one sector on this front have wiped out a ~ German division brought up by air. The Germans have already withdrawn behind their third defence line preparatory to the spring offensive. . . , M. Korobko added that Britam and America are fulfilling successfully their supplv obligations to the Soviet, and said:""Whatever the events are in the Pacific and the Mediterranean, they play an auxiliary part, for the main front remains the east." , . M. Molotoff's Note on German atrocities in occupied parts of Russia has now been published. The, full blame for the atrocities has been placed on the German Government. "We shall never forget," said M. Molotoff. TROOPS AND REFUGEES LAST SHIP FROM SINGAPORE HIT BY MANY BOMBS SYDNEY, Mar. 5 A British cargo ship has arrived at an Australian -port with 2500 troops, women and children on board. It was the last large vessel to leave Singapore, and normally carries only 12 passengers. For hours the ship was bombed by $ total of 90 Japanese aircraft and was hit several times. Two sisters, members of the nursing staff, displayed great courage during the attack. The members of the crew have made representations to the Army Department for recognition of the sisters' bravery. BACTERIA IN OIL TANKS CAUSE OF EXPLOSIONS SECRET GIVEN TO GERMANY (Reed. 8.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, Mar. 4 Paul Borchardt, an ex-major of the German Army, who is on trial with five others for espionage, admitted that he informed a high official of the German Government regarding the progress of research into a method of causing oil tanks to explode by introducing bacteria. , , The prosecution produced a letter intercepted by British agents in Bermuda which discussed Professor Jemima's researches into bacteria which, when introduced into oil tanks, formed methane gas and caused an explosion. Borchardt previously had said when a tanker exploded near Brooklyn that it might not have been sabotage but the result of bacteria gas. SUNK IN COLLISION PHILADELPHIA, Mar. 4The Navy Department announced that the British freighter Mypsum Prince was sunk in a collision with the tanker Voco at 6 a.m. to-dav just outside the Lewes-Delaware breakwater Six men were picked up from a raft and 13 rescued by the coastguard. Five are missing. _______