NO YIELDING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1941, Page 6

NO YIELDING

DETERMINATION TO HOLD MOSCOW i DECLARED BY THE SOVIET PRESS. INTENSIFIED AIR ACTIVITY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) RUGBY, October 15: The entire Soviet Press today voiced the determination of the Soviet never to yield Moscow to the enemy. The “Red Star” said that nowhere, at any time, had the Germans suffered losses as great as on the approaches to Moscow. The Germans, the newspaper added. had continued their slow advance in the Bryansk sector, suffering heavy losses, while in a number of sectors Russian resistance was checking the German drive. The German attack in one sector resulted in the enemy being driven back to their starting point, leaving behind them a thousand killed and wounded, thirty tanks and ten field guns. What appears to be one of the fiercest battles of the entire war is raging in the Viazma sector, where it is admitted in Moscow -that the Germans have a considerable numerical superiority—indeed a greater superiority than on any other sector. Here the German advance, though still continuing, has been slowed up. At the same time, the Soviet troops are counterattacking in various places, destroying

the smaller German wedges in the Russian defence. The . “Red Star” observes that cold weather and the consequent drying-up of roads have permitted a wider scope to enemy scouts. Air activity on both sides is also said to have been intensified lately. The situation is also grave in the south, where the Nazis have occupied Mariupol and are driving towards Dombass and Toganrog, aiming at the capture of Rostov. The “.Red Star” said that in the" course of the capture of Mariupol, (the. Germans lost several thousands killed and wounded and considerable equipment. “The city,” adds the “Red Star,” “repulsed several German attacks, until fresh German reinforcements, including a hundred tanks, arrived. Then the Red Army abandoned Ihe city and occupied previously prepared positions in an organised fashion and immediately reengaged the Germans. The latter apparently calculated that the Soviet troops would continue to be rolled back. Without resting, however, they gave a formidable resistance in their new positions. In face of heavy losses, and despite Nazi advances which were checked, the Germans apparently gave up hope of success in a further offensive.”