R.A.F. IN ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1941, Page 5

R.A.F. IN ACTION

ON MURMANSK FRONT GERMANS GET UNPLEASANT SURPRISE. NEWS OF RUSSIAN SOUTHERN ARMIES. LONDON, September 26. While the Germans claim to have completed the destruction of the Soviet forces encircled east of Kiev, other reports.are now more emphatic that Marshal Budenny has withdrawn his main armies, though with heavy loss. The Russians are giving battle in guarding the industrial east Ukraine. A German report that the town of Stalin has been occupied is not confirmed. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says the Royal Air Force is in action on the Murmansk front. It has driven off German planes, , permitting the Russians to throw back , T the enemy offensive 10 miles behind the Liza River. The R.A.F.’s appearance on this front has been probably the Germans’ most unpleasant surprise for weeks, the correspondent says. When the Germans and Austrians advanced six days ago after forcing the Liza River they threw in strong forces of dive-bombers to blast the Russian positions. Hurricanes met the Stukas, which promptly made off under the cover of morning mists. The invaders held to the attack while squadrons of Messerschmitts were brought up from Petsamo and Kirkenes. These, after a series of dogfights, also made off, and the R.A.F. were masters of the air. The Russians then counter-attacked, throwing back the Germans and Austrians 10 miles. The R.A.F.’s advent in these operations was a very well-kept secret. The Germans were fully informed of the facts, but have not dared to publish them for fear of damaging the Finnish and German morale. The same correspondent says that waves of Stukas and heavy bombers are ceaselessly raiding Leningrad, causing indescribable damage, but always losing a percentage of their number, and they have not succeeded in breaking the Russian defences or fighting spirit. ESCAPE FROM KIEV TRAP. Marshall Budenny’s main armies have escaped from the Kiev trap. This is not yet officially accepted in London, but Russian circles in Stockholm are less reserved. They estimate that Marshal Budenny extracted threequarters of the total forces between Kiev and Kremenchug, and also successfully consolidated the. front just eastward of Poltava after losing approximately 200,000 men. At Poltava Budenny flung in reserves in a counter-attack which checked the German pursuit long enough to allow the weary, shattered divisions to regroup across the Pol-tava-Kharkov railway at Valki. From these position he has been slowly forced back till he is now 35 miles west of Kharkov. Against this line Field-Marshal von Runstedt is preparing to launch a drive seeking to penetrate the industrial heart of the eastern Ukraine. ' \ Simultaneously von Runstedt’s southern forces are beginning a new advance from Genichesk along the coast of the Sea of Azov beyond the Crimea, preventing Budenny from detachinig reinforcements from this sector to meet the threat against Kharkov. BATTLE FOR KHARKOV. The battle for Kharkov will be grim and dour. Budenny’s army is weakened but not broken, and it is capable of terrific resistance backed by the fullymobolised civil population of 800,000, who have been ceaselessly preparing fortifications in the last two months. Moreover,- big Soviet reserves have been held at Kharkov and other Donetz centres against just such an emergency. The Moscow “Izvestia” says that a steady stream of Russian troops and army traffic is moving through Kharkov toward the front as the invaders come nearer to the city. Men and women in the city are seen filling sand- „ bags.