STRONG ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 5

STRONG ATTACKS

MADE BV RED ARMY ON SEVERAL PARTS OF FRONT. NAZIS FORCED TO WITHDRAW ON GOMEL. ! LONDON. September 2. The most reliable sources indicate that the Red Army is strongly attacking on several sectors of the front. It is over-early to describe the movements as a general coun-ter-offensive, but they have all the appearance of co-ordinated egySignificant arrows on the maps published in many papers now point against German positions instead of as in past w’eeks to the Red Army. It is clear that Marshal Timoshenko, after the terrific battles which compelled him to withdraw from Smolensk, was able to reorganise more quickly than the Germans and is now striking back not only to break von Bock’s front but to weaken the German attacks on Leningrad and the Ukraine. Von Bock has been compelled to withdraw on Gomel, where his armies are fighting a fierce battle with von Bock’s right flank resting on the northern edge of the Pripet Marshes. General Koniev by his attack of Brobruisk hopes to encircle this exposed right wing, while General Rakovsky is engaging von Bock at Smolensk, where the German spearhead would be placed in a perilous position.