RUSSIAN THRUSTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20659, 9 January 1942, Page 3

RUSSIAN THRUSTS

ON ALL FRONTS PROGRESS IN CRIMEA BATTLE WITH FINNS (Elec, Tel. Copyright—United Prp«B Ann, i (ReccL Jan. 9, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. S. The recapture of Mshovsk is regarded in informed circles in London as as indication that the southern arm of the Russian offensive on the central front, after striking 100 miles westward from the Tula region, is turning toward the north in order to outflank the German centre, of which the apex is now at Mojaisk. The Russian northern thrust is just north of Rjev, and, therefore, still about 150 miles from the van of the southern advance.

Although the Russians have given no news of the Crimean landings, there is evidence from German statements that the Germans regard the situation there as very serious.

The Soviet communiques merely report continued fighting during the night on all fronts.

A Kuibyshev message says that the Russians have advanced another 15 miles on the south-western front. The Helsinki correspondent of the Swedish paper Aftonbladet says that a great battle has been raging for the last four days on the southern sector of the Finnish front. The Russians have been throwing battalion after battalion against the Finnish positions in the heaviest fighting since the Finns attacked Petrozavodsk last September. The Russians, for the first time for months, have considerable armour, ed forces on this front. Develop' ments elsewhere are believed to have enabled the Soviet High Command to release heavy material for an offensive against Finland, the primary object of which is to secure safe transit for British and American supplies through Murmansk. Picked Russian forces, protected by the guns of the Black Sea Fleet, and heavily supported by planes, are making further landings at different points of the Crimea, despite fierce German resistance, says the Daily Mail’s Stockholm correspondent. Thousands of Russians who landed in the last few days are rapidly consolidating their positions for a great offensive to relieve Sebastopol. The Berlin news agency stated that Major-General Braun, commander of the Brandenburg Division, was killed by a land mine on the eastern front.