GREAT NEW ARMY FOR OFFENSIVE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 99, 21 January 1943, Page 5

GREAT NEW ARMY FOR OFFENSIVE

Results Of The Relief Of Leningrad

(Received January 20, 7 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the relief of Leningrad is momentous, first, because it releases a huge Russian army for new offensives; secondly, direct communication between Leningrad and Moscow will be restored within a few weeks; thirdly, direct transport to Leningrad along the main trans-Siber-ian railway will be resumed, enabling coal, steel, and iron to be. brought for the great plants of Russia’s first industrial centre, which will resume arms production after a year of idleness; 'fourthly, the Volkhov River power station will again supply Leningrad's industries. These advantages justify the sacrifices of scores of thousands of Russian lives in the costly Sinyavino offensive last autumn, which prepared the way for the relief, the correspondent says. Wild With Excitement. Remarkable scenes were witnessed in the streets of Leningrad when the troops marched in to relieve the city after Us 500-day siege, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Workers on the nigh-, shift remained in the factories, but in the morning joined in tremendous domonstrations throughout the city, which had gone wild with excitement. After the announcement of the breaking of the blockade strangers meeting in the street shook hands and embraced one another, and wounded soldiers in the bos pitals cried with happiness. During the most anxious days of the siege, workers in the forges were dropping from sheer exhaustion, yet they did not abandon their posts. Today they are rewarded. The weapons they forged have defeated the enemy. It is officially estimated in Moscow that more than 250,000 enemy troops have died in the battle for Leningrad. The mighty barrage last, week so dazed the Germans who survived that they offered almost no immediate resistance. The Russians were thus able to make initial advances with the smallest losses. Shells from the Russian Baltic fleet and coastal batteries also screamed over Leningrad. Immediately the guns stopped Russian shock troops went into action with Sinyavino as the objective. They struck from tlie Volkov River and also southward from the frozen Lake Ladoga and from Leningrad itself. Terrific Struggle. The Russians from Leningrad had the task of crossing tlie frozen Neva, over which they manhandled heavy guns. They arrived to find that the barrage had smashed the German concrete emplacements. There followed for several days some of the bloodiest fighting of the whole Russian campaign but the Russians’ artillery pinned down the Germans while infantry constantly rushed the broken positions. Sector after sector was reduced until a gap 10 miles wide was forced and Leningrad was again in touch with the outside world. It is confirmed that though the Germans had captured the town of Shlusselburg, they nevi * succeeded in taking the island fortress on the Neva. In this citadel Soviet marines had been holding out the whole time, supplied precariously by small boats at night. Many quarters in London regard the relief of Leningrad as the best news yet to eome out of the Russian war. Political observers expect that this great Russian victory will have important repercussions on Finland, which has long been uneasy about her part in the war. The prospect of a victorious Russian army turning north and sweeping across the Karelian Isthmus into Finland is likely to cause increased war-weariness among the Finns.

OPPORTUNITY FOR FINNS

(Received January 20, 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 19. “It is reliably reported that Finland nulde overtures to Britain for a satisfactory peace, but that their consummation was baulked by the German forces in Finland,” says the military commentator of the neivspaper "P.M.” "The raising of the siege of Leningrad is important because of' its) possible effect on Finland’s contribution to the Axis. "The lighting lias been negligible on Finland’s tiny front, hut Finnish airfields are vital in the battle for supplies en route to Murmansk. The great bulk of the Finnish people are striving desperately for peace, and now would be a good time, when Hitler's thinly-spread troops are busy on half n dozen other fronts. There is insufficient German strength to wage a campaign in Finland.”