IMPORTANT GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1941, Page 6

IMPORTANT GAINS

CLAIMED BY GERMANS IN UKRAINE MENACE TO ODESSA RUSSIANS ALLEGED TO BE IN DIFFICULTIES. WITH ENEMY FORCES ASTRIDE COMMUNICATIONS. (By Telegraph-—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 12., Interest in the Russian-German struggle is increasingly concentrated on the Southern Ukraine, where the Germans claim to have reached parts of the Black Sea coast, after considerable gains of territory. A military spokesman in Berlin this afternoon said: “The German pursuit of the Russians has partly reached the Black Sea.” Tonight a spokesman declared that the German artillery dominates the lower course of Dnieper, below Kiev, for which -reason these reaches are almost useless as a line of communication for the Soviet. “Moreover.” he added, “the few railways in the Southern Ukraine are now under the control of German and allied troops, so that the whole traffic system is paralysed. The Russians won’t be able long to maintain their hold on a small section of the Dnieper bend at present under their control." The British United Press correspondent in Berlin says neutrals here believe that the Russians in the Ukraine are carrying out an oderly large-scale retreat. They emphasise the statement in a Hungarian communique: “Enemy forces, untouched by the encirclment movement, are retiring on a broad front.”

The Berlin news agency states that the Russians are attempting to bring their scattered troops to the Black Sea coast and ship them away. The Luftwaffe on August 10 sank six Soviet ships, it is stated, between Odessa and Ochakov.

“The Times" correspondent on the German frontier, referring to the fact that no fighting is so far reported from Odessa, points cut that its reputedly almost impregnable fortifications are based on similar principles to those of Tobruk.

The British United Press JVloscow correspondent says private reports from the front indicate that the Russians threw the Germans back for some distance in the Smolensk sector.