RUSSIAN HERO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1941, Page 6

RUSSIAN HERO

COMAUNDER DODONOV VETERAN OF THREE WARS. LEADING ASSAULTS ON CENTRAL FRONT. (Received This Dav, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, August 31. Commander Dodonov is the newest Russian hero. He is a veteran of three wars who, it is reported, is leading assaults against the forces of Von Bock. According to Moscow, Commander Dodonov is methodically pushing westwards his flanks covered by Marshal Voroshilov’s forces in the north and by Marshal Budenny’s in the Ukraine. 1 There is no indication of whether this is identical with the thrust attributed to General Koniev. x The “Pravda” states that Commander Dodonov prepared the ground with heavy artillery and is now attacking across a boggy terrain. It adds that the German artillery fire is becoming weaker and the German planes less numerous. German hammer-blows between Smolensk and Moscow have been diverted, with the object of finding less resistance to right and left. They have not yet found a soft spet. On the contrary, the Russians after initially yielding under heavy blows, have retrieved some of the lost ground. The most desperate German onslaught at present is directed towards Leningrad, from Lake Ilmen to the Finnish Gulf. The Germans vaguely claim progress towards Leningrad, but apparently the progress is not appreciable. The German drive on Leningrad from the west has also apparently slowed down. The German News Agency declared that the Russians are laying vast minefields in the path of the German forces. GERMAN REPORTS (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 31. Contrasting with the German announcement on Friday, the Berlin radio, referring to the capture of Tallinn, said several damaged ships lay in the harbour, while the masts of sunken ships stuck out of the water. A German communique states that Finnish troops annihilated Soviet forces in the area around Viborg and recaptured the town itself on August 30. Finnish units advancing in the direction of Leningrad from the Karelian Isthmus gained considerable ground.