RUSSIANS RECAPTURE KLIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 297, 17 December 1941, Page 5

RUSSIANS RECAPTURE KLIN

SOVIET FORCES PUSHING ON

LONDON COMMENTATORS SPEAK OF MAJOR NAZI DEFEAT

IL cl. 1 1.30 p.mi he great Kitssi.in of: • h i \ < ami 30 villages hav< l»<«ii rec,:| the hands (if the advancing 10 unith-west of Moscow, and chit l.eningrad railway Klin was f.and lost hy them at a cost of I Russians captured 12'2 tanks, advance involve Kalinin so m Tula I I 111 miles south of .Mo-eox ing is in progress. A Moscow communique slate-: "We engaged the enemy in a numix r of violent actions on the central and' south-western fronts, and have reoccupied Klin Yasnayapolana (southwards of Tula) and also Dyedilov > Bogoroditstt. south - eastwards of Tula.” The Germans are retreating through blinding snowstorms. Their i columns which are largclx confined] to roads and railways, are becoming locked in a hopeless, helpless conge -, tion, says the Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Mail. Thousands of' Germans are freezing to death. Some : divisions have been isolated for ten! days. Many divisions have been compelled to fall back merely to reach supplies of food and munitions. The 1 roads in thr Tula region are hlockel hy lines of German supply lorries, frozen deep into the snow. Two entire panzer divisions are frozen on the Kalinin front Suivivofs were obliged to travel 50 miles on foot before they obtained transport. The Russians arc busy reconditioning old defences as soon as they aie captured. LOXDOX. Dec. 15.—Military observers in London are unanimously of the opinion that Germany has suffered a disastrous defeat—probably, as thr Russians claim, thr most disastrous since thr Nazi forces began to overrun Europe. Observers suggest it is possible that this dislocation of the German plans may completely change thr character of thr war and Im* a turning point to victory. Thr Rus>ian forces are staled to be progressing very well indeed. An outstanding fact appe irs defeat of the most determined German efforts into which hundreds of thousands of the br.4 troops wer? thrown regardless of cost. The Russiaius succeeded in paining very dangerous thrusts aimed both directly at the capital from the west and also at th** communications to the north and south-east. Although these

, AMOCiation—Copj r <ht.) London. Dec. ]6. < continues and four more towns piurid. Main centre to fall into ussiaii troops is Klin. 4(1 miles •f railway centre on the Moscowakrn by the Germans last month 13.(Hili killed and wounded. The The next sh ps in the Russian libs north w» .st of Moscow and )) . Al both places heavy ifightI thrusts seem Io have brought the I Get mans, by the beginning of December io within 20 miles of the capital to the west and north, and within striking distance of the railway from Moscow to Kuibyshev, they were decisively thrown hack hy the superior lighting of the defenders, and Moscow is no longer in danger. Furthermore, '(he Germans have been forced to abandon advanced positions which they !• ached during the autumn not i only around Moscow but east of Leningrad and towards the lower Don. ' The Russians are giving the enemy no rest and have already inflicted ! he.ivx losses and captured much booty. The effect of the full rigorous Russian winter on the vast campaigning armies remains to be seen, but al- , ready the German reverses may hav> . been partly due to Ih<* climatic difficulties wT ( h the> max he supposed to , be less capable of surmounting than their adversaries, into whose country they recklessly plunged. There is no disposition in London. however, to iii Kier-rat? lhe magnitude of the tasks which are facing lhe Russian force*, since it is unlikely that the German power of defence and offence has been crippled. Tiie Times jioints out that only one <>f the objects with which Germany embarked on this campaign nearly six months ago has been even partially attained. These objects were the destruction of Russian forces, the capture of Moscow. Leningrad anl I the Ukraine with its resources, and •th' seizure of the Russian oilfields. ’"Even the value of lhe advance into the Ukraine has been enormously : diminished by lhe prior removal of industrial plant and thr destruction of a great proportion of such machinery i and material a* could not be removed uuickly.” 'lhe Times says. It adds: I “Whatever course events may take within the next few months, it is reasonably sure that if the German army in Russia ’i> looking forward to a quiet winter its hopes are not destined to