NEW OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1942, Page 3

NEW OFFENSIVE

ON MUCH BIGGER SCALE ABOUT TO BE OPENED BY SOVIET. ACCORDING TO CORRESPONDENT. LONDON, January 4. On the Russian front another four towns have been recaptured by the. Soviet forces. A German communique admits Russian successes on the north and central sectors of the front. Main interest centres on Alojaisk. The German forces holding that place are threatened from Staritza on the north-west and Maloyaroslavets on the. south-west. Reuter’s correspondent at Kuibyshev reports that a Soviet offensive on a much bigger scale is about to open.

The correspondent says the strategic successes of the past few days marked the approaching conclusion of the first phase of the series of planned local offensives by the Soviet High Command. The second and more important stage is now about to begin. This will consist of operations intended to engage the enemy’s forces on as big a scale as possible, to surround and annihilate them without affording them time to settle down to prepared lines. Stalin’s aim. says the correspondent, is to get the Germans on the run and to keep them running. The chances of achieving success in this second phase have been immensely increased by the capture of Kaluga. At the moment the Germans in the Mojaisk sector, west of Moscow, are in serious danger of encirclement. These forces, totalling 100,000 men are threatened by the Soviet drives from Staritsa and Malo Yaroslavets, north and south of Moscow, in the direction of Viazma, which lies to the west of Mojaik, and which is not far from Smolensk, where Hitler is stated to have established his headquarters. RISING TEMPO OF SOVIET OFFENSIVE. SUCCESSES IN CAUCASUS & ELSEWHERE. (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, January 4. “Fierce fighting is in progress on the Caucasus front, where men of the Red Army and Black Sea Fleet have recaptured one populated place after another,” says the “Pravda.” “The Germans are hurriedly retreating to save their men and armaments and entrench in new positions.

The Berlin radio admits that the Russians launched several more heavy counter-attacks on the Leningrad front, but claims that they were repulsed. A Finnish communique states that Russian attacks against the Finnish lines were repulsed. The “Pravda” says ski troops and whippet tanks played a large part in the recapture of Volokalamsk, Naryfominsk and Staritsa. Skiers increase the mobility of the tanks and raise the tempo of the offensive.