ENEMY WEDGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1941, Page 6

ENEMY WEDGES

TOLL TAKEN BY RUSSIANS GALLANT EFFORTS BY RED AIR FORCE. CLAIMS BY THE GERMANS. (Received This Day. 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, October 8. In the tense struggle going on in the direction of Bryansk and Viazma, says the “Red Star” every step forward is costing the Germans a big price, but it is evident that Hitler is risking much on the drive. Three hundred German tanks were destroyed to the rear of the Russian lines after the enemy drove a wedge into the Soviet forces. The Tass Agency reports that the Russian Air Force is hammering German concentrations around Smolensk in an effort to halt the German offensive against Moscow, the power of which shows no signs of diminution. Thirty trains, were bombed and destroyed and planes on the ground and also transport columns were attacked. The agency adds that guerillas in the Leningrad area killed a general, 207 officers and nearly 3,000 men, wrecked the headquarters of two German units, burned eight ammunition dumps and derailed thirteen trains.

The German news agency says that Russian infantry, supported by tanks, strenuously made efforts to breach the German lines in one sector of the Leningrad front, but were repulsed. Mining operations in the Gulf of Finland have been completed, it is added, and Russian ships are now unable to leave port.

A German communique says: “Westward of Leningrad, on the night of October 6, we repulsed a fresh landing attempt before the. enemy reached the coast. The Luftwaffe heavily bombed Russian transport, trains and railways and raided targets in Moscow and Leningrad. The Luftwaffe also attacked the roadsteads of Suez.”

The Hungarian headquarters announced that the Russians were attempting to transfer forces from the South Ukraine across the Sea of Azov to the Crimea or to the South Caucasus.

HITLER REPORT

ENCIRCLEMENT OF RUSSIAN ARMIES.. (Received This Day. 11.15 a.m.) BERLIN. October 8. A special communique from Hitler’s headquarters says that while offensive and pursuit operations in the Ukraine arc in full swing, a breach in the central sector, begun on October 2. has led to a new vast series of battles of annihilation. In the Viazma area alone several Soviet armies are encircled and the battle is proceeding irrevocably to their destruction.