MADE BY GERMANS AGAINST LENINGRAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1941, Page 5

MADE BY GERMANS AGAINST LENINGRAD

In Spite of Ferocious Onslaught ADVANCE CLAIMED TO SEA OF AZOV CONTINUED HEAVY FIGHTING ROUND KIEV LONDON, September 21. The battle for Leningrad, which has been raging for days with increasing violence, figures prominently in the news from the Eastern front. Moscow reports that in spite of intense artillery and air bombardment the Russian soldiers are holding their positions and that the Germans are unable to advance a single step forward towards the city. The “Red Star” states that the Germans have lost more than forty per cent of men and divisions engaged in this battle. Another report states that the Russians are definitely exercising the initiative at many points. Women, the Home Guard and marines of the Baltic Fleet are fighting side by side. Daring Russian couilter-attacks are wrecking the Nazi plans to penetrate the Russian lines. Scores of German planes are bombing the Russian, positions with such ferocity that it seems the earth itself will be split. In spite of this, the Russian soldiers stand firm. Some villages, including a strategically important railway zone, have been recaptured by the Russian forces.

In the fighting for Odessa, Moscow reports that new German and Rumanian attacks on this port have been repelled and the enemy has lost ground. The Germans claim that in the Southern Ukraine, German troops advancing from the Lower Dnieper have reached the Sea of Azov, cutting off’ the Crimean. Isthmus and rendering increasingly difficult the position of Russian troops on the north coast of the Black Sea. This report is not confirmed by Moscow.

German reports speak of scenes of indescribable devastation found on entering’ Kiev. This contradicts an earlier enemy statement that the city was captured intact. German divebombers are reported to be attacking Russian forces east of Kiev. 5

In the central sector, the Russians are maintaining’ their pressure and far behind the enemy lines there is an intensification of guerilla warfare in White Russia.