THE UKRAINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24685, 14 August 1941, Page 7

THE UKRAINE

GERMAN ADVANCE PRESSURE PERSISTS OTHER SECTORS UNCHANGED RUGBY, Aug. 12. Competent military circles in London consider that the German claim that strong forces are 70 miles from the Black Sea port of Nikolaiev is unlikely to be accurate. It is thought that armoured units may have advanced, but there is no evidence that substantial units are there at all. The position is more likely to be a break through by a few armoured vehicles., There are indications that the German pressure in the Ukraine is persisting, strongly and there is no sign of any falling off in this sector. The greatest pressure of the German advance comes from the southeast from Uman rather than the north-west. It is likely that the river Dniester has been crossed near the corner of Bessarabia.

There is no change in the Smolensk sector, or further north in the Leningrad sector. Russian Air Activity A Russian communique states: During the night of August 11-12 our troops continued fighting with the enemy in the Kholm, Soltsi, Smolensk, Korosten, and Uman directions. In other sectors of the front there were no large-scale military operations. Ouf air force, in co-operation with‘the land forces, continued to inflict blows on motor and mechanised units and infantry of the enemy on the battlefield, and attacked his air force on aerodromes.” Another Moscow communique says that combined operations by tanks, aeroplanes, artillery, and infantry routed a large German tank column in the direction of Korosten. According to the official German* Transoceam News Service the German High Command, in a supplementary report issued yesterday, stated: “ The German Luftwaffe, by its destructive blows . against the Soviet air force, has removed a danger for the entire world of being attacked by the Bolshevistic air force.” Within a few hours of this announcement the Red Air Force bombed Berlin. The Finnish Frontier Finnish military experts arriving in Berlin from the Russo-Finnish frontier declared that the capture of Leningrad vvas not expected for several weeks. The experts added that an offensive against Leningrad was fiot envisaged for some weeks unless the German offensive in the Southern Ukraine terminated earlier than was scheduled. Finnish troops north-eastward of Lake Ladoga were now about 65 miles northward of the Stalin Canal and separated from Leningrad by swamps, where progress must be slow because tanks and heavy artillery could not be used. These Finns emphasise the imperative need for conserving Finnish man-power. Finnish troops had not attempted to storm Hankb because they were sure it would fall into their hands after the collapse of Russia. ■.

The Stockholm Social Demokraten reports that the Russians on the Finnish front are using shells containing petrol, which bursts 200 feet above the ground, igniting forests. Reports from the Viazma front states that the Russians are using gigantic modern tanks reaching 250- tons weight with nine millimetre steel plating, 75 millimetre guns and flame throwers.

A neutral journalist who visited Smolensk declared that never before had he seen such a frightful spectacle as he saw in Smolensk. Everything was burnt or -battered down except the bank and a large hotel. It was a city of the dead.