MARSHAL BUDENNY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 228, 27 September 1941, Page 5

MARSHAL BUDENNY

THREE-QUARTERS OF HIS ARMIES INTACT

GRIM DEFENCE OF KHARKOV THE NEXT TASK

(Recd. p.m,) London, Sept. 25. Marshal * Budenny's main armies have escaped the Kiev trap. This fact is not yet officially’ accepted in London, but Russian circles in Stockholm are less reserved, says the Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent. They estimate that Marshal Budenny has extracted three-quar-ters of his total forces between Kiev and Kremenchug and also is successfully consolidating a front just eastward of Poltava, after losing approximately 200,000 men.

At Poltava Marshal Budenny flung in reserves in a counter-attack which checked the German pursuit long enough to allow the weary and shattered divisions to regroup across the Poltava-Kharkov railway at Valki. From these positions he was slowly forced back, till now he is 35 miles westward of Kharkov. Against this line General von Rundstedt is preparing to launch a drive, seeking to penetrate the industrial heart of the eastern Ukraine. Simultaneously, von Rundstedt’s southern forces are beginning a new advance from Genichesk, along the coast of the Sea of Azov, preventing Marshal Budenny detaching reinforcements from this sector to meet the threat against Kharkov.

The battle for Kharkov will be grim and dour. Marshal Budenny’s army is weakened but not broken, and is capable of terrific resistance, backed by the fully mobilised civil population of 800,000, who have been ceaselessly preparing fortifications in the last two months. Moreover, big Soviet reserves are held at Kharkov and other Donetz centres against just such an emergency.

The corresponde..i ucclaces that the Germans have now exhausted accumulated supplies of munitions, and are depending on day-to-day production; but they arc still strong enough to maintain an offensive equal to all the previous ones.—U.P.A.