MORE LANDINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1942, Page 3

MORE LANDINGS

MADE BY RUSSIANS x IN CRIMEA OPERATIONS DEVELOPING ON BIG SCALE. GOOD PROGRESS ON MOSCOW FRONT. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, January 8. Picked Russian forces, protected by the guns of the Black Sea Fleet and heavily supported by planes, are making further landings at different points in the Crimea in spite of the fierce German resistance, says the “Daily Mail’s” Stockholm correspondent. Thousands of Russians who landed in the last few days are rapidly consolidating their positions for a great offensive to relieve Sebastopol. A New York broadcast today says that Russian! landing parties have secured beach heads at a numbei of fresh points, including the south coast as well as the west and east. The Germans admit new landing attempts. Though the Soviet communique (says British Official Wireless) only reports continued fighting on all fronts during the night, it is known in London that the Russian operations in the Crimea are developing on a large scale. The Red Army has now extended one of its salients on the Moscow front by recapturing Meshovsk, 130 miles south-west of the capital and 38 miles west of Kalnga. The Red Army is thus nearly halfway back to Smolensk from Tula. The Russians are reported to have penetrated the Finnish positions at several points. Soviet reinforcements have arrived in Leningrad. PRESSURE ON FINLAND. The Helsinki correspondent of the Swedish newspaper “Aftonbladet” said yesterday that a great battle had been raging during the last four days in the southern sector of the Finnish front. The Russians were throwing battalion after battalion against the Finnish positions in the heaviest fighting since the Finns attacked Petroxavodsk last September. The Russians for the first time for months have considerable armoured forces on this front. The developments elsewhere are believed to have enabled the Soviet High Command to release the heavy material for an offensive against Finland, the primary object of which is to secure safe transit for the British and American supplies through Murmansk. SAYING NOTHING BUT DOING A GREAT DEAL. RUSSIANS IN MOSCOW ZONE & CRIMEA. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.32 a.m.) RUGBY, January 8. The recapture of Meshovsk is regarded in informed circles in London as an indication that the southern arm of the Russian offensive on the central front, after striking 100 miles westward from the Tula region, is turning towards the north, in order to outflank the German centre, of which the apex is now at Mojaisk. The Russian northern thrust is just north of Rzhev and therefore still about 150 miles from the van of the southern advance. Although the Russians have given no news of their Crimean landings there is evidence from German statements that the Germans regard the situation there as very serious.

The Soviet communique merely reports continued fighting during the night on all the fronts.