ISLANDS STORMED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24715, 18 September 1941, Page 7

ISLANDS STORMED

RUSSIAN OPERATION HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING GERMANS DRIVEN OFF LONDON, Sept. 16. The battle for Leningrad reached a new pitch of fury when Soviet troops drove the Germans from strategical positions near the city after bitter hand-to-hand fighting. General von Leeb's forces had seized a group of small islands in the river " V," evidently aiming to use them as a jumping-off ground against Leningrad. They had also established themselves on one bank of the river. Soviet troops at dawn, under the cover.of artillery fire, crossed to the islands in pontoons and boats, and, defying heavy German counter-fire, successfully stormed the enemy positions with bayonets and hand grenades. The Germans lost hundreds of killed and much material. The Soviet barrage lifted as the stormers reached the island objectives and bombarded the further bank, which was held by the German covering forces. The Russians also used mine-thi'owers in this action, in which a girl member of the Soviet home guard was prominent in the first line of atta.ckers. The Russians now hold the islands and both banks of the river, which the German artillery is fruitlessly shelling. Other reports from the northwestern front state that the Russians recaptured the township of Slautino, after cutting off the retreat of a large German force. The Germans lost one and a-half battalions before they fled, running the gauntlet of machine-gun and rifle fire, which suddenly opened up from their rear.

The Soviet News Agency declared that a regiment of the German 30th infantry division was annihilated in another action in which the Russians captured 250 Germans and much booty.

These successes followed a series of counter-attacks by a Soviet force which was threatened with encirclement.

Further proof of Soviet resourcefulness is contained in the Red Star correspondent's description of a surprise tank attack, which staggered the Germans in the Leningrad area. From fortified heights overlooking the road and railway the Germans planned to drive the Russians into a " mud trap," where the incessant rain had converted the low-lying land into a swamp, but before the Germans were able to develop the plan Russian tanks, rumbling through " specially-cut lanes" in a nearby,forest, charged the German troops, evicting them from the heights and driving them into the very trap set for the Russians. Floundering in the swamp, the Germans became a target for the Soviet. artillery and mine-throwers. The whole German force was routed. Four hundred officers and men were left dead on the battlefield. From the German side also come reports testifying to the relentlessness of the fighting in the Leningrad area, where, according to the German radio, violent house-to-house struggles preceded the capture of a town within the fortification area.