MAJOR DRIVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1941, Page 6

MAJOR DRIVES

LAUNCHED BY GERMANS AGAINST BALTIC AREAS & UKRAINIA. BERLIN RADIO PROPAGANDA. < Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, June 22. German reports indicate that fighting is going on along the whole Finnish-German-Rumanian border with the Soviet—a distance cf 1,5C0 miles. The Germans apparently are attempting three major drives, one into the rich Urkrainian wheatfields, the second along the Baltic coast to Leningrad and the third, a joint German-Finnish attack across the Karelian Isthmus, towards Leningrad. The Rome radio said German and Rumanian troops continued throughout the morning to penetrate Russian territory. A. war correspondent with the German forces says squadrons of Junkers gathered at an advanced aerodrome, which was built in a few days. The pilots did not know their assignment until an hour before the take-off on the morning of June 22, when they were told, the enemy was Russia, who had joined Britain. One squadron bombed Ventspils aerodrome, destroying thirty planes grounded on the aerodrome, which had' no ground defence and was left useless.

German light artillery and machinegun fire opened at 3.5 a.m. and infantry advanced past a frontier post on the Prussian border. The Russians were prevented from blowing up an important bridge. The German troops were soon deep in Russian territory. There was little enemy fire. A correspondent on the Finnish border says the Russian fire grew weaker after the Germans had penetrated the frontier posts and prisoners were captured in a few minutes. In a broadcast the Berlin radio told the Russians it was useless to resist the German attack. "You are facing the best army in the world, which in a few weeks defeated the strongest armies "in Europe." the broadcast said. “Therefore, Russian soldiers, turn round your bayonets and guns and drive your Bolshevik overlords from your country. Only when the Jews and commissars are driven out will there be peace and justice in Russia. The German Army intends to free you from Bolshevik exploitation. Down with Stalin! Down with Jew exploiters! Long live the liberty of all working peoples!’’

A news agency says General Antonescu has issued a proclamation to Rumanians declaring that Rumania is undertaking a holy war against Bolshevism. “We aim,” he says, “at the same time to restore Bessarabia and Bukovina to Rumania, thus contributing towards the Axis struggle to establish a new order of real civilisation in Europe.”