PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL AREAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1941, Page 5

PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL AREAS

MANY OF THE BEST NAZI DIVISIONS WIPED OUT LONDON, August 15. Although fierce fighting continues all along the Eastern front, the battle for the Ukraine is still regarded as the most critical sector. It suggested that Marshal Budenny is trying to retreat to an area easier to defend and that lie may attempt, to hold the Germans on a line covering the industrial area within the two bends of the Dnieper River as a covering point. The latest German communique announces the encirclement of Odessa by Rumanian troops and of Nikolaev by German and Hungarian troops. It appears, however, that both these places are still held by the Russians. There is no evidence that the Germans have reached the Dnieper at more than a few points and German claims'to have captured Krivcirog are denied in Moscow. It is pointed out that even if the Germans occupy the whole of the Dnieper salient they would have captured only about one-fortieth of Russia proper.

In the central sector, after a month’s fighting, the Germans have been forced tc abandon blitz tactics and are now on the defensive. Most of Germany’s best divisions were engaged in this fighting and have now ceased to exist. In the north the Germans are making little progress. The Germans speak of Russian counter-attacks in this sector.