WILL NOT FALL

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21552, 15 October 1941, Page 6

WILL NOT FALL

STRUGGLE FOR MOSCOW CONFIDENCE OF RUSSIANS ENORMOUS RESERVES CUnitad Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Oct. 15, 3.15 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 14 As Hitler’s gigantic drive against Moscow reached dangerous proximity to the Soviet capital, M. Lozovsky told a press conference that the German advance had been slowed up and in many sectors halted. “Fresh millions have arisen to defend Moscow,” he said. “We know that the Germans will never capture Moscow. We can send to the front enormous forces of which the Germans have no conception.” The Moscow radio also emphasised the extent of the Russian reinforcements. “From the east new units are arriving and fresh regiments are entering the battle,” it said. “Like waves of the sea the oncoming tide cannot be checked. The Germans cannot take Russia.” The Pravda declares that thousands of civilians are helping in the construction of field fortifications around Moscow. “Napoleon’s Road" Every Russian and German report ©f the fighting on "Napoleon’s Road” to Moscow testified to the appalling bloodiness of the struggle. The Red Star describes a night counter-attack in the Vyazma sector, in which the Russians chased the Germans 11 miles. Two days later a fresh German division pounded its way back for nearly four miles, but the recapture of this ground cost two battalions of infantry and 12 tanks. The Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent, emphasising the weight of the German thrust along the main Smolensk-Moscow highway, says furious assaults by General Hoth’s panzer divisions drove a breach through the positions which the Russians had taken up at Borodino. The German tanks on a narrow front but in no great strength then crashed on into Majaisk. A superior force of Russian heavy tanks coun-ter-attacked and dislodged the Germans from Mojaisk and drove them back beyond Borodino, with heavy losses. The Soviet infantry have fallen back to new positions in Mojaisk or just westward of it. A fierce battle rages night and day in the snow-powdered birch and pine forests on both sides of the Moscow highway, where Russian strong points and mechanised reserves block the road to the capital. Timoshenko’s Reserves

The Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent says the German thrust northward of Orel is still held at Mtsensk, where troops with tanks have been trying for five days to smash the Russian lines, in the rear of which Marshal Timoshenko assembled reserves which are holding fortified positions amid forests already deep in snow. Another German spearhead against Moscow, which was directed through Roslavl, Kaluga and Serukhov, has, according to Berlin, reached a point 12 miles westward of Kaluga. The Soviet forces here are desperately resisting before lines prepared along the eastern bank of the Ugra River.

Northward of the main Moscow highway the German advance in the direction of Rjev is slightly progressing but has not reached the town. RUSSIAN CONFIDENCE USE OF LARGE RESERVES EVASION OF ENCIRCLEMENT .{ United i’reas Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Oct. 15, 3.15 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 14 German despatches tonight stated that the Russians are throwing “all possible reserves” against the Germans between Lake Ilmen and the j Sea of Azov. Meanwhile the Russian confidence j in face of the admittedly grave i situation on the central and southern ! fronts suggests that the principal Soviet forces have managed to evade 1 encirclement, despite tne German trumpeting of “annihilations.” The orderly withdrawal of Marshal Timoshenko’s armies apparently owed much to the German failure to advance rapidly northwards after capturing Orel in the region of which the invaders are swinging blows firstly in one sub-sector and then in another. Their main aim hereabouts seems at the moment to grip individual units of Soviet troops with steel claws, consisting of small formations of tanks, and wipe inem out, then pile troops into the gap thus made. The German losses in the Orel sector are reported to be so serious that the High Command has been compelled to draw reinforcements from other sectors. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AIR RAIDS ON BRITAIN (Official Wireless) (Received J3ct. 15, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Oct 14 It is officially announced that civilian casualties in the United Kingdom due to air raids in September were 217 killed or missing and believed killed, and 269 injured and disabled in hospital. Details are: Killed or missing, 87 men, 73 women, 45 children under 16 years of age and twelve unclassified: injured, 129 men, 111 women, and 29 children under 16 years of age. “ NOTHING TO REPORT ” LULL OVER BRITAIN (Untied Press Assn.— Elec. Te! Copyrtmt) (Received Oct. 15. 3.15 p.m.) LONDON. Oct. 14 While aircraft of the Coastal Comm<uiu -‘.lacked enemy supply ships