"FLUID PERIOD” AHEAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 17, 21 January 1942, Page 5

"FLUID PERIOD” AHEAD

RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS WHOLE FRONT AFFECTED London, Jan. 19. The news that the Red aimy is now lighting in Mojaisk and Orel and close to Kharkov is believed to presage the beginning of a "’fluid period ’ tn which a major and I lavourab tment along the 'whole central front. 1 The peril to tiie German army has at last been fully realised by Hitler, iwho is reported to have sent an order 'to the Luftwaffe to halt the Russians ■at any cost. i Masses of dive-bombers and tight ei> yesterday were thrown into the battle m a terriiic eliort to blunt the Rus•sian spearheads assaulting .Mojaisk. , Once the mam retreat of the Ger*man army from the Mojaisk sectoi gathers momentum it is believed the Germans have no hope of staging an> : ; actions until they are ■behind the Smolensk defences. Smolensk itself is being rapid!\ drawn into the battle zone. Moscow 'radio announced that the Russians are within 60 miles of the town and are still advancing. No clue was giver of the direction of this thrust, but it lis believed to come from Kirkox. Help From Villager.,. Red Star reports that men and women armed with pitchforks an< ■axe.< helped the Russian troops tc • throw the Germans out of their vili lage on the Kalinin front. The Germans suffered heavy losses. i Moscow- radio declared tiiat tu--1 G-.-rmans have banned war cones • pendents from the Russian front or 'the ground that transport and communication difficulties make theii xvoik practically useless at present. I Tne German communique, whici claims that German and Rumaniai Itroops recaptured Theodosia, toof ■ several thousand prisoners in thf i Theodosia area, and annihilated al I other Russian foices, adds that th; i Germans have thrown back the Rus sians who landed on the south coast of the Crimea and have captureprisoner.-. ‘ The communique admits that th 'Russians are attacking vith strom. forces alone the whole Donetz. front