GREATEST BATTLE FRONT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 179, 1 August 1941, Page 5

GREATEST BATTLE FRONT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

SIXFOLD BIGGER THAN FRANCE NEUTRALS ENVISAGE ONE SIDE OR OTHER COLLAPSING REPORTED DISRUPTION AMONG NAZI GENERALS AND HITLER (Reed. 11.50 p.m.) London, July 31. Neutrals in Europe envisage lhe possibility of one side, or the other, in the German-Russian campaign collapsing from sheer physical exhaustion, reports The Times’ correspondent on the German frontier.

He quotes the Deutsche Allgemeine Ziitung as saying that the battle front is at least six-fold the size of that between the Channel and the .Meuse, overshadowing anything and everything in the last war. The newspaper assorted that militarily the climax to the struggle against Russia had passed, but pointed out that victory over Russia will not be followed with the same re. Its as in France, because Russia has intact reserves which the German military authorities believe are gigantic.

The Germans admit that their front line troops are feeling the strain of a prolonged effort and some confess the limits of endurance have been reached. The men scarcely hope for relief because or the vest extent of the battlefield.

London, July 30. Reliable neutral Haveners jrom Germany say that hundreds of officers of the German Army have beer, arrested, and of them ou were recently shot as a result of a quarrel between the military and Hitler's en tourage, reports the Daily Telegraph's correspondent at Istanbul. German military leaders are reported to have advocat'd that Russia should have been attacked before France, and now they are blaming • Hitler's friends for al.owmg Russia time to prepare her defences. The Germans are oeginning to realise that the decimation of crack divisions in Russia makes a German victory somewhat problematical. Hitler's supporters are now urging lie use of gas, but military leaders oppose it, arguing that such melhous would precipitate Germany's ultimate defeat.

Messages received m London, to which credence is given in ollicial circles, report toe deaths of General L'det, ace airman of the last war, and K. Kaufmann, gauleiter of Hamburg. A most sensational report concerns L'det, wiio is a close friend of Goering. Udet was detained after he had vehemently protested against Hitlers folly in invading Russia, and was deprived of his command. The Nazis punished L let with typical thoroughness and cruelly, under the surveillance of Himmlers gunmen. It is known that Udet shot himself, leaving letters which the Gestapo immediately impounded. - U.P.A. London, July 30. Heavy Russian counter-attacks in the Smolensk area were again a feature of to-day's fighting. Authorities in London said that these counterattacks might be the beginning of a large-scale Russian offensive. The Germans who continue to promise important decision very soon, claim that their supply lines have been established on the Moscow road far eas. from Smolensk, but it seems that they have been held in this area and are actually suffering severe punishment from Marshal Timoshenko's legions. The Germans also claim that the pressure on Leningrad is increasing, but the only evidence they produce is vague mention of successes north of Lake Peipus. Claims regarding progress on the southern front are similarly vague, mentioning fighting south of the Bug River. German ana Finnish troops claimed to have advanced on the Finnish front after violent fighting, despite the Russians setting fire to forests. The Times’ Stockholm correspondent says that Finns and Germans are creeping forward on both sides of Lake Ladoga, but neither Olonez nor the Baltic-White Sea canal is immediately threatened, and the Russians, who are believed to have adequate forces to meet anything the Germans and Finns can bring up, still hold the greater part of uotn the : eastern and western shores of Lake Ladoga. The Finns, in a drive towards PetrozavodSK, are not more, than one-third of the distance across! the Isthmus between Lake Ladoga ; and Onega, and are now in country : where groups of lakes and streams ‘ favour the defence. Only fancy am.; small-scale maps can suggest any sort of real threat to Leningrad, consider- i ing the large Russian forces and the I deiendabie nature of the terrain. ; M. Lozovsky, Moscow spokesman,; stated late to-night that the Russian! counter-attacks had driven back some] Nazi divisions 100 miles. Several Ger- • man units had been encircled and the I Germans had been halted everywhere.! To-night's Russian communique! says: “r ighting occurred to-day in the Novorjev. Neva!, Smolensk and Jito-| mir sectors, being especially stubborn i in the Smolensk and Jitomir areas. | Soviet planes bombed Ploesti and! Sulina, causing great fires.'' The Germans continue to emphasise; their difficulties. One spokesman on; the Berlin radio declared that Rus-1 sian tanks were heavier and more I strongly armed than Germany's big-! gest. and were also superior numerically. Failure Of Blitzkrieg. British correspondents agree that blitzkrieg methods on the Russian-) German front are giving way to; trench warfare of the more orthodox kind. The correspondents believe that; the Russians are better able to face, protracted trench warfare than the, Germans, as they have an almost in- 1 exhaustible supply of man power, anil i the time factor would favour the defenders. A Finnish communique claims that Finnish troops occupied in a fortnight! territory eastwards from Lake Ladoga ! greater than the Russians captured in 1939 and adds: “We have taken the! north-east coast of Lake Ladoga as

far as Taulos, which is 20 miles northwest of Olonez, as well as two railways on Lake Ladoga’s north-west coast. The enemy at templed to disembark troops and retake the railways. but was repulsed and left, nearly 1000 dead.” A German communique says: “We repulsed renewed enemy attacks to relieve pressure and thus liberate encircled forces east of Smolensk'.”