RUSSIAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20875, 29 August 1942, Page 3

RUSSIAN

GRIM RESISTANCE ‘STRENGTHOF DESPAIR' GJATSK THREATENED (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Noon.) LONDON, Aug. 28 The latest reports from Moscow claim that the Russians stormed and captured Rjev’s northern suburbs. Street fighting is now in progress near the heart of the city. One Russian force is reported to have by-passed the city. Red Star states that improved weather is making conditions favourable to large-scale tank and air operations. The German resistance is stubborn, reserves from other sectors having been brought in. General Leluishenko continues to grind the German defences in the suburbs of Rjev, storming positions street by street and house bv house. Fighting is raging in several areas

round Rjev as the Germans dislodged from Zubksov try to hold new positions with .the support of masses of artillery and many planes. The Daily Express correspondent in Moscow says that the Russians captured Sychevka, on the railway between Rjev and Viazma, thus cutting a vital German supply line. The Russians operating on the central front promise the complete liquidation of the dangerous Rjev pocket—dangerous because Rjev is a potential springboard for the resumption of the attacks against Kalinin and Moscow. Bitter Street Fighting Bitter street fighting is raging in Rjev. The Germans are putting up desperate resistance for the city, upon whose very high strategical importance all correspondents agree. The Russians from the northern outskirts are steadily working their way towards the centre of the town, but it is a slow, grim job. The Moscow newspapers do not hide the sanguinary character of the fighting nor the bitterness of the German resistance, which the Pravda describes as the “strength of despair.”

Meanwhile other Russian forces are battering southwards against the Rjev bulge, liberating village after village and steadily overcoming what the Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent describes as the world’s strongest and deepest system of fortifications. M. Stalin has appointed General Zhukov his chief deputy Defence Commissar.

The Times’ Stockholm representative describes the Rjev offensive as of the greatest importance since Marshal Timoshenko’s spring move against Kharkov. The correspondent points out that the heavy Russian pressure extends southwards beyond Kaluga to the Orel region. The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says that the scope of the Russian offensive is widening, both northwards and southwards of Rjev, and that the envelopment of the powerful German garrison at Gjatsk is now threatened. Large Russian Reserves

The Izvestia stresses the point that the' Russian reserves are far from exhaustion. Only part of those available for the central front operations are at present being used. The Moscow correspondent of The Times declares that when the Russian offensive began the Germans had 150,000 first-grade troops esconced in strong positions. Commenting on .the Russian successes in the central sector, The Times says that General Zkuhov won a substantial victory which should have forestalled any possibility of an immediate resumption of the offensive against Moscow and may well be exploited to a great effect in the weeks to come. The Times, however, doubts that this success will have any immediate effect on Marshal Timoshenko's armies and adds that the German capture of Stalingrad undoubtedly would be a great disaster, but this threat has been foreseen and much has been achieved to mitigate it, huge supplies of oil having been built up in other regions. Even if the Germans succeed in capturing Baku itself, The Times says, the reserves already accumulated should suffice to maintain the Russian armies .through the winter and far into next year’s campaign, when other forces of the United Nations may reasonably be expected to take their pari