OF THE DEFENCE OF LENINGRAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 September 1941, Page 5

OF THE DEFENCE OF LENINGRAD

Further Advance Made by Russians on Central Front POSITION ON APPROACH TO CRIMEA UNCHANGED ENEMY FRONTAL ATTACK ON NARROW ISTHMUS . LONDON, September 28. A stiffening- of the defences of Leningrad is reported. The Germans claim that fighting is taking place 20 miles to the west and 20 miles to the east of the city. There is a report of landings of Rusian troops from Lake Ladoga, near Schlusselburg. The enemy alleges that troops which succeeded in landing were annihilated and that other attempts to land were repulsed. Elsewhere Russian troops are reported to have thrown the enemy back from three lines of prepared positions. Both the “Isvestia” and the “Red Star’’ refer to a stiffening of Leningrad’s defences. The latter paper claims that the enemy’s advance on Leningrad has been checked. In the neighbourhood of Lake Ilmen a Russian counter-attack recaptured five villages in local operations. The Russian forces in this area are gallantly striving to relieve the pressure on the city by a drive towards the rear of the German troops attacking Leningrad. An advance on a ten-mile front is also reported near Smolensk. In the Black Sea area, the enemy operations against the Crimea are confined to frontal attacks on the narrow Perekop Isthmus, connecting the peninsula with the mainland. The Russian flank cannot be attacked because of the support given

by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The Germans claim to have driven out the last of the Russian troops from a peninsula 50 miles south of Nikolaev.