RIGOURS OF WINTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1941, Page 5

RIGOURS OF WINTER

ON EASTERN BATTLEFRONT German Soldiers Found Frozen to Death NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN GENERAL SITUATION POSITION IN CRIMEA STILL GRAVE . LONDON, November 17. t - Today’s news from the Eastern front indicates that the Germans are still being held everywhere except in the Crimea. One grim detail is that the Russians have found the first German soldiers frozen to death. . Confused and bitter fighting continues in various parts oi Russia but there is no news in London of any significant change in the situation. . A Moscow communique issued last night said the Crimea was still gravely threatened. There is no confirmation, however, of Germany’s claim to have captured Kerch. On the Moscow front the Germans have been checked in their attempt to outflank Tula, 100 miles south of the capital. Heavy fighting continues in the Kalinin area, at the northern end of the Moscow, front. The Russians are fighting back hard in the Tikhvin area and it is stated that Leningrad is not yet completely encircled and is still in communication with the rest of Russia. The German advance beyond Tikhvin has been halted. Further north, the Russians have beaten off enemy attacks in an area fifty miles south of the Arctic Circle. In North Finland all major operations are reported to have ceased on account of the weather. The Russians state that on the central front severe cold is affecting the morale of the enemy troops. The “Pravda’ ’ states that the corpses of the first German soldiers frozen to death have been found. It adds that snow is hampering the movements of the enemy. Tanks are forced to take to the roads and so are made more vulnerable to the Russian artillery. Grim pictures of the scorched earth left to the enemy in the areas of Russia he has occupied are given by neutral journalists who have returned from a tour of these areas. Smolensk is almost completely destroyed and Kiev,is a chaotic mass of ruins. The city was mined with fantastic thoroughness, tens of thousands of mines being left behind. In such buildings as are left, German soldiers and officials are working in fear of being blown up at any time. Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi “philosopher,’’ has been placed in charge of the occupied Russian territories.