NAZIS DESPERATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24732, 8 October 1941, Page 5

NAZIS DESPERATE

HEAVY ATTACKS WHOLE FRONT INVOLVED TERRIFIC PRESSURE LONDON, Oct. 6. With many quarters believing that Hitler has committed himself to “ doing or dying ” on the road to Moscow, tremendous public interest to-night centres on the progress of the latest German offensive, which is reported to be along the whole front, with the exception of the Leningrad area. The military writer of The Times tonight declares that the offensive, which is aimed at Moscow, has made considerable progress, in spite of strong Russian resistance. Swedish correspondents in Berlin describe the weight of the Luftwaffe attacks preceding the new offensive as enormous, and Berlin claims that these attacks have produced complete chaos among Russian communications behind the front. Because Moscow is identified with the core of Russia's spiritual and administrative resistance, observers tend to concentrate attention on the German two-pyonged movement against the Soviet capital, but apparently the Germans are also endeavouring to smash towards important objectives on other sectors.

It is even reported that the slackening off of the attack against Leningrad may only be relative, because the latest Soviet despatches describe fierce fighting on the approaches to that city. The Russians point out that unless the Germans unexpectedly score an enormous success they are faced with the task of keeping perhaps 1.000,000 men under inclement conditions in the Leningrad sector, with supply problems becoming increasingly difficult every day. A message from Berlin received at Zurich states that all the leading German newspapers to-day carry articles warning the public against unjustified optimism.

The Frankfurter Zeitung says. “Although the Fuhrer said the actual danger on the east front has passed, we must be prepared for many more hard battles." This paper argues that Britain will thank God for a German victory when she realises that Russia would most likely, at the grimmest mpment when British and German troops were fighting, have swooped down and crushed both nations. The Munich Neueste Nachrichten says; “ The war in the east will remain the greatest test of nerves and endurance the German nation has ever experienced. The utmost hatred must be directed against Britain and America, who forced us to take up arms against Russia.”

A number of papers explain that the occupation of Leningrad is of little importance from the military viewpoint. It is only important to encircle the city, and this has been accomplished.