SAVAGE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1941, Page 5

SAVAGE FIGHTING

FATE OF THE RUSSIAN NINTH ARMY NAZI CLAIMS RIDICULED BY COMMANDER. RALLYING CALL TO SOVIET TROOPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 11. A German war correspondent, referring to repeated Russian attempts to break through in order to neutralise the cutting off the Crimea from the j mainland, says that the Russians used * rocket guns which fire sixty shells simultaneously and also made raging attacks with tanks. The Moscow radio broadcast a telephone interview with General Charitinov, commander of the Russian 9th Army which the Germans claim they ihave annihilated. General Charitinov said, “The Germans are still fighting, but we are holding them. The German reports that they have captured my headquarters are untrue. They never will. “They have a grudge against the 9th Army for beating them at Melitopol, when we inflicted huge losses. They then got some men at our rear, but that has not scared anybody and they have not surrounded us.” In 'a leading article addressed to the troops which are being sent 'to the front, the Soviet Army newspaper “Red Star” says: “The threat hanging over us is great. Be steady, comrades!” The article then recalls Lenin’s words in the civil war period: “Death or victory.” The writer says that the myth cf German invincibility was exploded when the Reichwehr was halted at Smolensk, routed at Elnya, and checked at Leningrad and Odessa, and calls: “Let us take an oath to smash the invader.” The “Red Star” says that a battle of unequalled ferocity has developed due west of Moscow, in the direction of Viazma, the most vital sector on the central front. The Reichswehr drove a wedge deep into the defence lines, throwing in enormous numbers of infantry, tanks, artillery and aircraft. “The battlefield,” it says, “is strewn with German corpses, crippled tanks and arms,. but the situation is grave and the danger is great. The enemy are driving forward. In spite of their enormous losses the Germans continue to have numerical superiority in that sector.” Reporting on the other main thrust in the centre, the “Red Star” says: “The Germans, renewing their efforts to break through due north of Orel, launched on October 9 a large scale ■ battle, which is still raging. Fighting went on from daybreak on October 9 till late in the night, the enemy sending. over wave after wave of tanks in eVer-increasing numbers. German in-. far try by nightfall broke through to the Soviet trenches, but they were repulsed and the Germans lost the day’s battle. “The fighting was renewed with even greater ferocity on the next day, and the Nazis brought up reinforcements, which were battered by the Soviet air force. . “Meanwhile,” adds the newspaper, “fresh Soyiet reserves are moving to the central sector by day and by night. They are armed with the most modern weapons and are accompanied by new" tanks and guarded by fighters of the latest type. “All the men are'clad in warm clothing suitable for winter; they do not fear the ocld, and are wearing warm underclothing, thick uniforms, and new shoes.” Many of the men have not yet participated in this war, but their commanders are said to have experience of modern warfare.