GERMAN FORCE ROUTED

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21601, 11 December 1941, Page 6

GERMAN FORCE ROUTED

CONTINUED ADVANCE OF RUSSIANS

ENEMY’S BIG LOSSES —THOUSANDS KILLED

SOVIET AIR SUPERIORITY OVER WHOLE FRONT

(United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright)

(Received Dec. 11, 12.5 p.m.)

LONDON, Dec. 10

The fact that the Russians claim air superiority over the whole Russian front may indicate that the Germans are again moving planes to Western Europe for attacks on Britain. The Moscow radio announced that the Russians under General Kostenko recaptured Yelets, which was lost at the beginning of December. Two German infantry divisions were completely routed. The German casualties were 12,000 killed or wounded. The Russians captured a very large quantity of war material.

The Russians in the past t mans from two streets on the n

:wo days have ousted the Gernorthern outskirts of Kalinin.

The Red Star, describing t Sebastopol, says the Germans 1

he failure of the offensive on hurled six infantry divisions, i.S. regiments, also hundreds ae town, hut the courage and irevented the overwhelmingly y breaking through.

one cavalry brigade, several S. of tanks and planes, against th skill of the Soviet gunners pr superior numbers of the enemy Russian Air Superiority Important information bearing on | the recent Russian successes has been received in authoritative quarters in London. The Russians now claim air superiority over the whole front, particularly round Moscow, and this claim is described as based on good evidence. Russian heavy tanks have been doing especially well on the Moscow front, and in general the Russian tanks, owing to their broader tracks, are more effective than the German ones in the snow with which the front is now covered. The new Valentine heavy tanks, which have been operating in this sector, have also done well and have been found very satisfactory by the Russians. There is more evidence of the great difficulties which the Germans are finding in the maintenance of mechanical transport. Moreover, nearly all prisoners taken by the Russians in the Moscow sector are stated to be very inadequately and filthily clothed. Main Russian Successes The main Russian successes appear to be especially in the Ukraine and against the German thrust from the south of Tula toward Ryazan, while the recapture of Tikhvin appears to have restored the situation in the north, where the route from Leningrad to Vologda had been cut by the German thrust from the south of Leningrad. Germans Annihilated When this offensive failed the Germans began an incessant bombing of Sebastopol. But the Germans now admit, after thirty days, that their bombings have failed to bring the desired results. The paper adds that 15.000 Germans were annihilated in thirty days, at the end of which they are as far from that objective as at the beginning of the offensive. In admitting the reverses on the Eastern front, the German newspaper Hamburger Frembenblatt says: “Our soldiers w'ill never forget their sufferings in the last week of the lighting on the Russian front. The hardships exceeded anything so far experienced. We defeated the Russians over and over again but they always inexplicably managed to counter-attack. The German supply columns were unable to reach the j front line despite the strenuous efforts of the battery commanders, v'ho were forced to ration the rate cf ammunition consumption to a J maximum of thirty to forty shells daily. “Food supplies failed to arrive and 1 the men had to exist on a limited ! diet of dried potatoes. Our losses j are constantly increasing. The men have lost weight and have reached i the stage of physical and mental • collapse. The weather conditions are I appalling. The tanks need hours to I advance a few hundred yards. The } wounded had little hope of succour.”