BIG BATTLE FOR KALININ

Southland Times, Issue 24575, 25 October 1941, Page 7

BIG BATTLE FOR KALININ

STRUGGLE FOR EVERY HOUSE (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) LONDON, October 23. For eight days fierce fighting has been going on for Kalinin, in the streets of which obstacles and barricades have been erected, while the squares of the city are furrowed with trenches, says Izvestia’s wai' correspondent. The struggle goes on for every inch of the Soviet line, for every street and for every house. Some blocks of buildings have changed hands several times. Kalinin is only one of several places through which the Germans are attempting to force their way into Moscow. Moscow radio reports that the battles are being intensified in the neighbourhood of Mojaisk. “Our troops are heroically fighting and have repulsed five tank attacks,” it states. The Kuibyshev correspondent of Reuters says the latest reports show that the approaches to Moscow are completely blocked southwards and southwestwards of the city. Towards the end of last week and the beginning of this week General von Bock, German commander- on the central sector, unsparingly used tanks and mechanized infantry as a battering-ram in an attempt to break through from Mojaisk and Malo Yaroslavets simultaneously. He maintained the pressure with all types of arms in the Bryansk, Orel and Kalinin regions, seeking to find weak spots and keep the Soviet troops spread over several sectors. GREAT TANK ASSAULT It is not yet known how General Zhukov, 'the new Russian commander-in-chief on the central front, managed to stave off the great frontal assault by immense columns of German tanks. Sunday was apparently a day of intense German assaults, in which a series of frontal thrusts were co-ordinated with

the reckless use of German planes in rain squalls in an attempt to smash the Russian rear. While the defence in depth westwards and south-westwards of Moscow is achieving its purpose, a Soviet tank formation, aided by large reinforcements of Civil Guards, was holding attacks in the Tula and Orel regions by two German tank divisions, also a number of infantry regiments. These forces were swung from one sector to another in attempts to break through. The tanks succeeded in getting well on the way to Tula, but were held up, after which they tried a flank attack, which cost the Germans 150 tanks. They subsequently fell back to their original , positions. Although the winter is fast closing in and the fields of Central Russia are covered with a thin carpet of snow and the much used roads are still deep in slush, there is still sufficient “bone” in the ground to make cross-country traffic easy. German commentators declared that German guns have reached several points about 35 miles from Moscow and their strength is increasing hourly. There is little fresh light on the Donetz Basin and Crimean battles, but the Germans admit two heavy counterattacks on the Perekop Isthmus. After a period of relative quietness fighting has been renewed in the Novgorod sector, where, according to the Moscow radio, the Germans are Vainly making an effort to advance. The radio also declared that the Russians in the Leningrad sector broke through the German fortifications in one important area and advanced several miles to cross an unnamed river.