NO SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 169, 21 July 1941, Page 5

NO SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE

RUSSIAN-GERMAN FRONT SMOLENSK SAID TO HAVE BEEN BURNT BY RUSSIANS ■ (Recd. 12.45 a.m.) London, July 20. i With Hitler's war against Russia entering its fifth week, fierce battles continue to range in the main sectors. 1 The Germans are still a long way off I the three key cities, Moscow, LeninI grad and Kiev, which the Berlin radio ; said would fall in three weeks. | The German claim on Saturday to i have captured Novograu '- Volynsk j (west of Kiev) is not confirmed in the ; Russian night communique, which de- ; dared that fighting continues in that | sector. It also claims that all fight- ; ing in the sector confirms that battles j are raging behind the German a<> : vance lines. I Nor do the Russians admit the loss l of Smolensk. On the contrary, they 'imply that (he Red armies are still fighting in that sector. The Berlin radio reports that t Smolensk is afire, having been set ! alight by the retreating Russians on Wednesday. The city is still i burning, and is a smoking scene i of desolation. 1 The radio alleges that German solj diers brought hundreds of charred I bodies from the gaol; also that the deputy-Commissar of the city had I ordered the evacuation the women , and children, but when tnis could not Ibe effected, he and his family fled, ; leaving the city to its fate. I The radio referred to endless I streams of captured Russians being I taken through streets strewn with | wrecked guns, tanks and lorries.— : U.P.A.