RUSSIAN SUCCESSES ON CENTRAL FRONT

Southland Times, Issue 24548, 24 September 1941, Page 5

RUSSIAN SUCCESSES ON CENTRAL FRONT

GERMANS PUSHED BACK REPORT OF COUNTER-ATTACK AT POLTAVA I (United Press Association —Te 1 “graph Copyright) (Rec. 1.10 a.m.) LONDON, September 23. More local successes have been gained by the Russians on the central front, where Marshal Timoshenko’s army is pushing back the forces of General von Bock. Smolensk is still in German hands but it is gravely threatened by the Russians. In the Ukraine it is reported that the Russians have launched a counter-attack at Poltava, to the west of Kharkov. Mr Vernon Bartlett, M.P., who is one of the British Journalists touring the central sector of the Eastern Front says that at Yelnya, the scene of a Russian victory, he saw signs of German confusion and flight. “German helmets are two a penny at Yartsevo,” he says. Yelnya he described as a ghastly sight, with only chimneys and a stone church standing. In all directions there were piles of damaged and abandoned German equipment. The Russians are counter-attacking heavily at Leningrad and, according to Hungarian reports, they have launched counter-attacks on the Lower Dnieper. There is still fierce fighting on Oisel, an island in the Gulf of Riga, the capture of which was prematurely announced by the German High Command on Saturday night.