GERMAN ARMY IN SMOLENSK REGION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 September 1941, Page 6

GERMAN ARMY IN SMOLENSK REGION

BATTERED UNITS RETIRE

Retreat Made in Panic and Disorder FROM AREA CARPETED WITH NAZI DEAD EIGHT DIVISIONS LOSE 60 TO 70 PER CENT OF EFFECTIVES (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, September 9. Continuing’ his advance in the central sector of the Eastern front, Marshal Timoshenko in two days has recaptured fifty villages, besides Yelnia and recovered an area of 250 square •miles. The Russian troops have pushed fifteen miles west of Yelnia. The Germans left in the fields and woods near Yelnia tens of thousands of buried and unburied officers and men and carried off equal numbers of wounded. The remnants of the German forces are being chased westwards without respite. Moscow points out that the recapture of Yelnia is of secondary interest compared with the fact that eight German divisions were smashed during the struggle around the town. The “Pravda’s” special correspondent at the front describes the great German retreat westward from Yelnia, declaring that it is better to be described as a flight, in which survivors from the great battle fell back in panic and disorder. He adds that the Germans rushed to Yelnia after capturing Smolensk in July, strewing the entire district with corpses in a desperate battle. Believing that Yelnia was a good place from which to launch a final drive against Moscow the Germans since July had not advanced a single step. The Russian command began its careful preparation to drive out the invaders and calculated its counterattack methodically and accurately, for which reason it was irresistible when launched. The Tenth German Tank Division was smashed within a few days, after which the Russians wiped out the Fifteenth Division. The Germans assumed the defensive. They held commanding’ heights, on which they established strong points, but the Russians inflicted enormous casualties, particularly with artillery.

The Germans brought up fresh divisions, disregarding the fact that the whole district was virtually a mincing machine for German regiments. The battered divisions withdrew to the rear, but the Germans clung on to their positions. The Russian counter-attack was intensified in the first days of September and by September 4 six infantry divisions and ajso one motorised and one S.S. division had been smashed. The entire German formation, amounting to a substantial army group, then found itself almost surrounded. Its communication with the real- was maintained through a neck scarcely eight kilometres >yide, but this was constantly under Russian artillery fire and became carpeted with German dead. The Germans finally wavered and began a disorderly retreat, undercover of darkness, on September 4, abandoning great quantities of material. The “Izvestia's” special correspondent estimates that the Gerrnans lost between sixty and seventy per cent of their effectives in killed f : wounded and prisoners during the 26-day battle.