BELEAGUERED ARMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24855, 3 March 1942, Page 5

BELEAGUERED ARMY

PREDICAMENT OF NAZIS STARAYA RUSSA BATTLE CLIMAX NOT YET REACHED (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 1. The predicament of the Germans beleaguered in and around Staraya Russa is serious, but it would be a mistake to consider that their fate is already sealed, as the battle has not yet reached its climax, says the Stockholm correspondent of The Times. The Russian ring appears to be complete and strong, but the Germans possess excellent approaches from the Baltic States, where there are plenty of men and material. If, therefore, the Germans are unable to succour at least a part of the trapped army, their defeat will hold more than local significance and augurs ill for the German spring campaign. German morale cannot afford such a decisive defeat. The Gennans on the central front are almost as hard pressed as at Staraya Russa, the correspondent adds. If unofficial reports are true that Sychevka, on the Rjev-Vyazma railway, has been recaptured, then Rjev is almost certainly encircled. In any case, Rjev is included in the same tightening pocket holding Vyazma. Whether or not the Russians are 5 able to prosecute to victory the present large-scale offensives on the Leningrad and ■ Moscow fronts, they are already confusing Berlin’s plans by compelling the Germans to use on the offensive armies which are being prepared for the spring campaign. - , _ The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph reports that the German storm troops who crossed the Azov Sea on the ice night attack against the Yeisk fortress were beaten back after a fourhour battle. They left the ice strewn with dead. The Germans met a terrific concentration of enfilading fire from the fortress and shore defence machine-gun nests. The Russians attacking from Sebastopol captured an important height to the north of the town on the road to Bakhchisarai. Russian sources claim that Vyazma was almost completely encircled after the capture of villages 25 miles to the north-west of Vyazma. They also state that several unnamed localities 12 miles to the west of Vyazma were taken. .' ,

The Moscow radio describes as a crude fabrication the report in the New York Times that the Soviet has sequestrated Japanese property in Russia. The radio also denied the report of extensive movements of Russian troops towards strategical points on the coast of the Okhotsk Sea and that the Soviet has heavily mined the Tartar Straits between Sakhalin and the mainland.