DESTRUCTION OF NAZI ARMY

Southland Times, Issue 24680, 27 February 1942, Page 5

DESTRUCTION OF NAZI ARMY

PERSONAL DEFEAT FOR HITLER NO SURRENDER ORDER (P.A.) LONDON, February 25. Tire smashing of the 16th German Army at Staraya Russa is a personal defeat for Hitler. A captured order of the day issued by General Brockdorff reveals that Hitler ordered the surrounded army to refuse to surrender. The Russians gained their initial break through to the east of Staraya Russa and advanced south during the night across the frozen marshes, rivers and fields of snow to cut the rear enemy lines. While the main column pushed on small parties of skiers overpowered the main German garrisons on the highways and in the villages. The Russian advance was made in the face of terrific difficulties, including chest-high snow, frost and lack of roads and a desperate resistance by the Germans who threw in huge reserves. The Soviet offensive was marked by co-ordination of artillery, infantry, tanks aircraft and ski units. The Russians moved up their field artillery on skis and their munitions on sledges. Russian sappers constructed two cross-country roads to enable the

Red Army to surprise the Germans, who had based all their supply depots, repair shops and hospitals at Staraya Russa. The Russians now hold a line from Novgorod through Kholm to Velikiyeluki. This sector is vitally important for the Russians’ spring offensive. It threatens the Germans both on the Smolensk and Leningrad fronts. The Germans are now throwing vast reserves into the battle in the Staraya Russa region in a feverish attempt to halt the Russians. PINCERS MOVE If General Zhukov’s pincers can press on 25 miles they will thus meet across the German railway lifeline, thereby enveloping a large region, including Viazma and Rjev, which would be the largest pocket the Russians have yet managed to encircle. Moscow radio gave the following message from a German officer to his headquarters: “Our troops have no strength to fight and when the enemy attacks, especially by tanks, our men.. ..start running. So we officers are compelled to resort to pistols. All the men complain of sickness and utter exhaustion, as the result of long days and nights fighting.” The Russians, according to a report from Stockholm, are still battering most actively towards Shlusselburg from the

south in an attempt to unfasten the German grip on Leningrad. The Russians describe Dorogobuj as a complete shambles. The retreating Germans burned the few buildings left standing since the battles last summer. PLAN UPSET In the Staraya Russa advance the Red Army was guided by guerrilla units, who cut German retreat lines. The Russians then isolated and liquidated the enemy’s outlying defences and utterly routed the German divisions. I Tire attack was so stealthy that the Red Army marched 30 miles one night without firing a shot. declared that the Germans had planned to remain in Staraya Russa, which is the junction of three railways and seven main roads, throughout the winter. While the Germans refuse to disclose whether Staraya Russa is in Russian hands, they admit heavy fighting northeast of Lake Ilmen and the piercing of the German lines north and south of Kharkov by Russian cavalry, thus interrupting communications, which the Germans claim they later restored.