THIRD GREAT THRUST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 July 1941, Page 6

THIRD GREAT THRUST

PREPARED BY GERMANS IN RUSSIA Signs of Waning Strength CALL ON INFERIOR MATERIAL AND TROOPS ESTIMATE OF ENEMY LOSSES (By Telegraph. —Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, July 29. A third, great German thrust against Russia is impending, according to the “Daily Telegraph’s’’ Stockholm correspondent, who has previously been notably accurate in his reports. The new drive will not be on such a formidable scale •as those with w’hich the Russians have shown themselves able to deal. The correspondent bases this forecast on a belief that the German mechanised units have been so severely crippled that they have had to call on inferior Italian machines, and on reports of gaps in the infantry ranks having to be filled by inexperienced troops. The second main German offensive, in the direction of Smolensk and Jitomir, has almost petered out. German claims regarding Leningrad are described by the correspondent as lidiculous. The most likely position is that German armoured units are operating in the Trotsk area, south of Leningrad, but the main infantry forces have still not made headway against , the Russians. Similarly, the Finnish claim that they are threat- Xx ening Leningrad is discounted by all correspondents. The “Daily Express” correspondent at Istanbul is reliably informed that Germany has lost more than 700,000 men and 6,000 armoured vehicles.

Today’s German communique states: “The Rumanian troops have reached the Dniester Estuary and thus Bessarabia is free of the enemy. Operations in the Ukraine are progressing-. We have now substantially wiped out groups of Soviet forces overtaken during the break-through of the Stalin Line to Smolensk. In Estonia, enemy forces encircled west of Lake Peipus face annihilation. The Luftwaffe last night effectively bombed Moscow, ammunition factories, public utility plants and communications. ’ ’