VIGOROUS DRIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1941, Page 6

VIGOROUS DRIVE

NAZIS MAKING FOR MAIN RUSSIAN LINES EXPECTATION OF MAJOR ENGAGEMENTS. MANY SOVIET PARACHUTISTS DROPPED. (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, June 23. While hundreds of R.A.F. planes blitzed German bases and industrial centres in the West, the Reichswehr in the East threw all types of tanks and armoured vehicles into a vigorous drive to reach the Russian main lines. German sources have claimed that their forces, which have penetrated 60 miles across the frontier, expected major engagements at any moment. The advance in the Polish sector is reported to have put the Germans in possession of Grodno. Bialystock, Brest Litovsk and Kristynpol. In Bukovina and Bessarabia, the. Germans and Rumanians claim that an advance towards the old Russian-Ru-manian frontier continues, but the Russians are reported to be holding their own against heavy attacks at Czernowitz. According to the ••Standard's'’ Ankara correspondent, the Russians are extensively using parachutists, many of whom were dropped at various points, for the purpose of sabotage, behind the German lines

SEPARATION MOVE the NEW LITHUANIAN GOVERNMENT. ■ SPAIN OFFERS CONTINGENT TO FIGHT RUSSIA. (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, June 23. Lithuania has declared her independence and separated from the Soviet Union. A new Government has been formed, headed by M. Skirpa, a former Minister to Berlin. According to the Zurich “Neu e Zurcher's” Berlin correspondent, Spain has asked Germany for leave to send an auxiliary corps to fight the Russians.

_ ENTIRELY MR CHURCHILL’S POLICY. ATTITUDE OF NEW ZEALAND MINISTERS. (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, June 23. The New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser) announced that, after consultation with the New Zealand Government, he was able to state that his Government entirely concurred in the policy Mr Churchill laid down in his broadcast yesterday in reference to the German attack against Russia. New Zealand was glad to associate itself with it.