BATTLE FOR LENINGRAD ONE OF CEASELESS MOVEMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 230, 30 September 1941, Page 5

BATTLE FOR LENINGRAD ONE OF CEASELESS MOVEMENT

The Daily Telegraph's Stockholm correspondent says the Germans have begun a thrust against Kharkov. German panzers are locked iir a battle with .Marshal Budenny’s armies eastwards of Poltava, along the railway to Kharkov.

A strong Russian garrison still holds the west half of the island of Oesel (in the Baltic), including Taga Bav. the naval and air base —U.P.A?

Rugby, Sept. 23. The only news of the fighting in Russia reaching London to-day was of heavy lighting going on along the entire front with rain continuing to fall. Authoritative quarters in London regard this as a good factor in aiding Russian resistance. A further stiffening in the defence of Leningrad is reported by the newspaper Izbesta under the title: "Red Army counter-attacks on the Leningrad front are growing in strength. The newspaper described the Soviet drive as aiming to force back the Germans to the bank of an unnamed river. The Russians have dislodged the enemy from three lines of fortified positions despite very fierce resistance. A violent battle is continuing in this sector and also the rest oi the Leningrad front. Co-ordination by land, sea and air forces is a vital {pctor in the defence of Leningrad and it is strengthened by the population of the city and "behind the enemy lines.”

The morale of the army, navy and air force defending Leningrad is best expressed by the correspondent of the Red Star in Leningrad, who says: "We have checked the German advance. Now let us bleed him white and attack him incessantly, then drive him back.”

The latest German communique does not mention land fighting but says heavy army batteries effectively shelled Soviet warships in Kronstadt har'oour and the coastal area. One cruiser was set on fire. The air force attacked trains and railway works in the Kharkov and Moscow area and the vicinity of the source of the Volga. The Leningrad radio says that the enemy tried to penetrate the Russian lines on the Finnish side of the defences, but were stopped 1 y fire fron. close range. The fighting raged for two days, at the end of which the Finns had lost 600 killed and a great quantity of equipment. Colonel Bondarevs unit, in co-operation with

artillery, killed at least 2000 Germans, pierced the enemy's lines, pursued the retreating forces and re-occupied several villages. A determined effort by picked Germans to break through at Starayarusse was checked, reports the Moscow radio. The Germans were dislodged from a strategically important position and lost 1500 men in two days’ fighting. The Germans have not gained a foothold on the island of Osel and land communications with Leningrad have not been interrupted, declares the Soviet spokesman, M. Lozovsky. The German navy sustained such losses m attempts with destroyers and U boats to seize Baltic positions that they have not wished to risk the remnants of their fleet in big onslaughts. Only their small craft are nowactive.

The Soviet mid-day war communique merely reported that during last night Soviet troops engaged the enemy in fighting along the entire front.

A supplementary communique from Moscow announces that during seven days’ fighting in one sector of the western direction front. Comrde Lus’nkevick’s unit forced the eneamy to bandon fortified positions, wiped out 18 infantry comnanies, destrojed 18 tanks, 14 ammunition lorries, 10 trench mortar batteries, while 2300 German corpses were left on the battlefield. On one sector of the north-western direction front, the Soviet killed 580 enemy officers and men and put out of action or captured a considerable amount of war material. —U.P.A. Ankara, Sept. 29. The Germans have massed gigantic forces opposite the Perekop Isthmus. Rumanian labour battalions from the Odessa front are now enlarging aerodromes and building new ones on this front. German troops who were resting in Rumania have again gone to the front. Fifty large troop-carry-ing barges moved down the Danube past Galati. Four E-boats which were at Galati also moved down the Danube. A report, which has not been confirmed, states that troop-carrying barges and torpedo-boats which haa been at Burgas Varna departed northward, hugging the coast and anchoring by day to avoid detection. —U.P.A.

London, Sept. 29. A German attack, by land, sea and air, on the Isthmus of Crimea is expected hourly. To-day's Russian communique states that Soviet troops engaged the enemy along the whole front, and the 2nd and 4th Rumanian infantry brigades have been smashed. There arc reports of tierce onslaughts round Leningrad, where the battle has become one of ceaseless movement, raid and comiter-raid. The Russian defence is stiffening and the Germans, instead of being in the suburbs of the city, as they said a few days ago, report that they arc attacking 20 miles away. In the Crimea sector, the Germans appear to be preparing for an attack on the Isthmus of i’erekof. German concentrations on this sector have readied tremendous proportions.