IN THE BALTIC
SUCCESSES CLAIMED BY RUSSIANS WITHDRAWAL ADMITTED IN POLAND. VILLAGES BURNT & SUPPLIES DESTROYED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 24. A Moscow communique states: “During ' yesterday the enemy unsuccessfully directed his main effort toward Siaulai and Kaunas (Lithuania), and Grodno, Wolkowvs, Kobryn, Vladimir Colynsk, Ravarusska and Brody (Poland). The enemy in the morning pierced our territory in the directions of Siaulai and Ravarusska but were driven back beyond the State frontier. Our artillery fire in the Siaulai area destroyed 300 tanks.
“The enemy forced our covering units in the direction of Bialystok and Brest-Litovsk to withdraw after severe fighting, and occupied Kolno, Lomza and Brest-Litovsk. Our air force and anti-aircraft guns shot down 51 German planes. We took prisoner 5000 officers and men. Seventy-six planes were shot down on June 22.”
All the towns mentioned in the first part of the communique are on a line from Lithuania to southern Poland.
The Germans claim that in addition to capturing Brest-Litovsk they destroyed Russian forts round the town. The German radio says there is no sign of the Red Army, which is completely routed. German horse cavalry, it says, is storming on in spite of Russian snipers in the villages. The Russians have been burning all the farmhouses and villages and destroying supplies, but German supply units are already on the spot and labour battalions are repairing the demolitions, widening the roads and establishing better communications.
Another German report says that one German column has been advancing at a speed of two and half miles an hour since crossing the River Bug on the frontier. It found that the Russians left bridges intact because they were not strong enough to carry heavy vehicles.
The Russians, in addition to using troop-carrying aircraft which yesterday were reported to be over 40 points in Germany and German-occupied territory, are employing amphibian tanks. A German correspondent describing the crossing of the Bug, said: “We did not know what the strange-shaped monsters were till we knocked out three and found they were fitted with propellers. They are a very light type which our anti-tank guns easily pierced, killing the crews.”
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1941, Page 5
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355IN THE BALTIC Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1941, Page 5
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