ON PARTS OF EASTERN FRONT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1941, Page 6

ON PARTS OF EASTERN FRONT

General Claims Made By Both Sides FIERCE FIGHTING IN IMPORTANT SECTORS NAZIS ADMIT DIFFICULTIES IN DRIVE ON LENINGRAD (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 12.20, p.m.) LONDON, August 31. Although no notable territorial gains can be’ recorded at any point on the Eastern front in the last 24 hours, fierce fighting continues in several important sectors. The exact positions are not easily identified. For instance, for many days both sides have referred to the centre front, but without indicating how far north from Kiev. The Germans are still trying to develop their recent successes from Gomel, where they claim an advance of thirty miles. The Germans admit repeated Russian counter-attacks, sometimes indicating that these are across the Dnieper at a point below Kiev, suggesting that the Russians still hold some bridgeheads on the right (western) bank. Although the Dnieper represents the front line below Kiev, the middle front cannot be accurately plotted, except that it lies eastward of Gomel, Smolensk, Velikie Luki and the Lovat River to Lake Ilmen, its most easterly penetration being in the direction of Moscow, between Smolensk and Viazma. The counter-offensives mentioned by Moscow are mostly in this sector. “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says that however successful the counter-attacks have been, there is nothing to show that they are more than locally important and undertaken with the object of thwarting the Germans, who generally retain the initiative and have not yet exhausted their striking power. The Moscow radio stated that the German offensive on the ' central front had been completely halted and the German drive at Moscow rolled back, with terrific Nazi losses. A German spokesman admitted that the Nazi forces in the Leningrad sector were meeting “tenacious opposition, difficult terrain and intensive fortifications.”