LIKE A GREAT WIND

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 5

LIKE A GREAT WIND

Exhiliration Rising In Russia Big Victories Expected By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Rec. 11 pan.) LONDON, Feb. 20. Exhilaration is rising like a great wind throughout Russia as the anniversary of the Red Army approaches, namely, February 23. Poets and writers are composing special songs for the Red Army and for the guerrillas. Every Russian is talking of the great victories which are to be announced at the week-end to celebrate the anniversary. General Fedyuninsky’s forces in the Leningrad region are successfully developing their offensive and continue to press back the Germans. At one important point they broke through the German lines with artillery and tanks in support and advanced three miles. Infantry on skis and sledges followed and the Russians are now up against the last lines of the German defence belt. The Germans are stated to have suffered heavy losses. The Moscow radio announced that 34 coal mines had been repaired and started work in the Moscow liberated district to February 16. The Russians liberated Kresty, in the Volij district, reports a Moscow dispatch. Kresty is the most westerly town the Russians have so far mentioned as liberated. Another Moscow message reports that Dutch soldiers taken to Germany as “volunteers” for war work in factories have been captured on the Leningrad front. The Berlin radio reports that the Russians are exerting heavy pressure against the Germans who are encircling Leningrad, and says that the Russians yesterday, after extensive artillery and air bombardment, launched a particularly violent attack and employed very heavy tanks. The battle swayed back and forth as the desperately stubborn Germans repulsed attacks. The battle is continuing. A later report states that the Russians have broken through the first and second defence lines at Leningrad, and are now up against the last line of defence.