THREAT TO ODESSA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 August 1941, Page 5

THREAT TO ODESSA

NAZIS SAV THAT CITV IS ISOLATED

CONFIDENCE IN MOSCOW.

TIMOSHENKO LEADS ASSAULT ON CENTRAL FRONT. LONDON, August 13. ' Interest in the Russo-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. Berlin officials stated last night that Odessa has now been isolated by German forces reaching the coast westward and eastward of the city. The latest Moscow communique, received at midday today, states that no important change took place on the front last night. In Moscow there is confidence that they can afford to abandon the denuded agricultural land in the southern Ukraine and be able to hold the industrial lower and upper territory, where, they say, the Germans will have to contend not only with the army but also with vast organised workers’ resistance. There is every evidence that the Ukraine farmers have been carrying out the scorched earth policy effectively. A Berlin source claims that half of the Ukraine has now been captured. The German military spokesman last night declined to confirm statements that Marshal Budenny’s armies have been encircled. Elsewhere on the Russian front there appears to be little change. Moscow reports recent successful new counterattacks, including the recapture of a railway junction. The Moscow radio announced that Marshal Timoshenko, who directly commands the central front, personally and victoriously led his troops in one of the fiercest encounters of the war. The enemy, after being heavily reinforced, were holding the advantage • when Marshal Timoshenko shouted: “Forward for the Fatherland!” after which a tank unit advanced, artillery put up a fierce barrage and infantry stormed the German lines.