GERMANS USE HAMMER-BLOWS

Southland Times, Issue 24605, 29 November 1941, Page 7

GERMANS USE HAMMER-BLOWS

Hie Germans in their latest drive against Moscow frequently attempted to eat piece-meal into the Russian lines by sending forward small groups of tanks or detachments of heavily armed automatic riflemen, who try to “winkle” into the rear of the Russian advanced positions, but the Germans’ main tactic is still the hammer-blow. When they piled four tank divisions into the narrow front northwards and southwards of Volokolamsk it was not to be supposed that such a weight of armour, in addition to the supporting troops could immediately be held and the Russians admit that some of this force came out on the Klin highway. The Germans, however, have been fighting for 10 days, for which reason they are losing strength as the battle becomes bloodier and more intense. The Kuibyshev correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that German tank and infantry divisions operating in the Stalinogorsk direction advanced on a nine mile front. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says the Russians’ drive in the Ukraine, after progressing from the Voroshilovgrad direction about 70 miles, has begun swerving south-west towards the Sea of Azov. If this is no mere feint and Marshal Simeon Timoshenko is able to press a wedge home pinching the German forces aimed at

A large number of gliders and Junkers, also three divisions of paratroops estimated to comprise 7000 men, have arrived at an East Crimea airfield from bases in Rumania and Bulgaria. The Red Army newspaper Red Star stated that 1429 German planes had been brought down on the Leningrad front since the outbreak of war, of which 686 were shot down in combats.