GERMAN LINES BROKEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24825, 27 January 1942, Page 5

GERMAN LINES BROKEN

. -1.. _____— FIGHTING NEAR RJEV RUSSIAN SWEEP CONTINUES HEAVY LOSSES INFLICTED (Rec. 9 p.in.) LONDON, Jan. 25. The Moscow radio reports that fierce battle* have been raging for several days in the vicinity of Rjev, on which the Russisins are relentlessly advancing, inflicting heavy losses in men and material. Russian infantrymen broke through the Rjev defences at one point and captured hundreds of lorries and motor cycles, and much ammunition. The Russians have cleared the Germans out of 54 more places on the central front. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm Social Demokraten says: “The Germans admit that the Russians have driven a wedge in the German position at Kholm. The Germans says that this is the biggest dent the Russians have yet achieved, but the German lines are unbroken.” The Berlin radio reports fierce battles south-east of Lake Ilmen, where the Russians launched several tank attacks after considerable artillery preparation. The Russians attempted to land a force in the rear of the German troops around Sebastopol, but the German coast defenders compelled the Russian ships to turn back.

The Moscow Red Star says that with the recapture of Uvarovo, military operations are transferred from this sector to the Smolensk region.

It is significant that official Germany should be reduced to comparing the present Russian successes with their own previous succeses, which they frequently stated had reduced the Russian Army to impotence. The Germans also tfy. to divert attention from the main front by emphasising air interference with Murmansk railway, which they admit after six months of attack by the German and Finnish armies, is still “extremely important for the supply of the Russian northern flank.”

The special Stockholm correspondent of the Sunday Express reports that Hitler, accompanied by Generals Haider and Jodi, fled from headquarters at Smolensk. The Fuhrer has decided to establish his new headquarters at Minsk.

Haider later returned to Smolensk, and orders issued from there will be signed in Hitler’s name, but will not be Hitler’s orders. As Hitler left the front. Marshal Voroshilov returned there from the Urals, where he has been reorganising the new armies. The German attempts to minimise the Russian successes are regarded in London as evidence of anxiety about the continued setbacks on that front. The Russian gains of the past two months are now officially dismissed in Berlin as “ several minor offensive moves which either got stuck at once or ceased after insignificant gains.” The latest 70-mile drive north qf Smolensk is reduced to 45 or 50 miles, and described as “big propaganda action.” Berlin, however, finds it necessary to state that “ counter-operations in this area have not been concluded so far.” “Military circles” even think it necessary to explain that nothing the Russians have so far accomplished can be called a “major attack,” by which they mean " an attack which involves the employment of several armies with a break-through threat and an attempt thereafter to roll up the flank of one’s opponent to the right and left.” The conclusion evidently to be drawn is that the Russians have-not yet succeeded in inflicting on the Germans a series of defeats on the scale of those they suffered during the first months of the sudden German attack.

The Daily Mail says it is reported from Vichy that the German losses on the Russian front in January were over 500.000. of whom 300,000 died of typhus, pneumonia, frost bite, and exposure.

Much of the disease resulted from the slowing down of the food transport. In consequence of this the men were constantly short of rations. The physical condition of the troops is described as terrible. Their uniforms are in tatter's, sandbags being often wrapped round their feet to keep their boots, made rotten by the snow, intact.

The Soviet Information Bureau, refuting the German claim that the Russians lost over 1,000.000 dead during the past six weeks, says the Soviet losses in this period were 30,000 killed. A special communique lists the booty captured on the central front between January 16 and 25, in which period 694 inhabited localities were liberated, and over 12,000 Germans were killed. The booty includes 69 tanks, five armoured cars, 268 guns, 384 machine guns, 1842 rifles, 1979 motor vehicles, over 100,000 shells, 20,000 air bombs, and nearly 2,000,000 cartridges. Marshal Timoshenko’s armies, operating to the south of Kharkov, are reported to have advanced 50 miles in two days.