TAKING SHAPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1941, Page 5

TAKING SHAPE

BATTLE OF THREE RIVERS GERMANS FORCE PASSAGE OF DVINA. POSITION IN SOUTH OBSCURE. LONDON, July 9. The struggle on the Eastern Front appears to be crystallising a into a battle of three rivers—the js Dvina, which runs from northern < White Russia to southern Latvia; < the Dnieper, which runs down the central front on the “Stalin Line”; I and the Dniester, along the north- < ern borders of Bukovina and Bessarabia. Today’s first Russian communique i indicates that the Germans have cross- ■ ed the Dvina. The enemy attack in i this area is directed toward Smolensk. Farther south the enemy is still held on the Dnieper, which must be crossed to enable them to complete the development of their assumed pincers movement on Smolensk. The position on the Dniester is not clear. Yesterday the Russians spoke of fighting at Mohiler, which is on the Russo-Bessarabian • frontier on the Dniester. Later they said they had driven' the enemy in one sector back in disorder over the Pruth River into Rumania. A Rome message today says that the Russians have been driven across the Dniester and have suffered heavy losses. Rumanian reports state that the whole of Bukovina has been occupied. The latest neutral reports tend to emphasise the fact that the battle on the Eastern Front cannot be assessed only in relation to the German advance. The Berlin correspondent of a Swiss newspaper says that in the Minsk area thousands of Russian soldiers have hidden in the forests and are continuing to resist desperately. According to Italian dispatches yesterday, the Russians are applying the “scorched earth” policy in this area. The advancing troops find transport, food, and metal, even the church bells, removed or destroyed. The roads and bridges are all mined.