NO BIG ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1941, Page 5

NO BIG ADVANCE

MADE BY THE GERMANS DURING LAST 24 HOURS. ACCORDING TO LONDON COMMENTATORS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY, October 16. ' Despite the fact that the over- < night Moscow communique stated that the position on the central front had deteriorated, heavy / fighting is continuing and, according to competent military commentators in London, lit would not appear that the Germans have made any very big advances during the last 24 hours. It seems possible, however, that the thrust toward Kalinin has made further progress and that a German advance is taking place from the direction of Orel towards Kaluga. It would appear that the battle, west of Moscow has now reached its crisis and that the Germans are seeking a decision in the immediate future. There is no. further news in London from the Murmansk, Leningrad, Odessa or sea of Azov fronts, where the position appears unchanged. The German drive towards Kharkov continues to meet with stubborn resistance and does not appear to have made any further appreciable pro-, gress.

A Soviet midday communique states: “During the night of October 15 our troops continued to fight along the whole front. Fighting was particularly heavy in the western direction of the front. The Germans have continued to throw fresh units into the battle. In the Leningrad area the defenders captured a number of German soldiers of the 68th Division and prisoners reported a declining morale of the German soldiers, in consequence of the stubborn resistance of the Russians. Prisoners also stated that heavy losses had been suffered by them on the Leningrad front.” NOTABLE EXAMPLE RUSSIAN PEOPLE SET NEW STANDARD. ADDRESS BY MRS WINSTON CHURCHILL. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 15. Launching a special appeal for a new fund for Red Cross aid to Russia, Mrs Winston Churchill said that the people of Britain were really longing to aid Russia. “The people of Russia,” she said, “have set up a new standard of courage and endurance in the terrible sufferings which they are undergoing, must pray to God that we shall not •.’be., subjected to the same trials which they are facing. If we are I think we have a very great example to follow.”

Mrs Churchill is chairwoman of the special Aid to Russia Fund, which has been opened by the Duke of Gloucester’s Red Cross and St John Committee.

AMERICAN REPORTS “ALL NOT WELL" IN MOSCOW. STORIES OF DISORGANISED BROADCASTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, October 16. News from American correspondents in Europe does not' inspire confidence. The Berne correspondent of the “New York Times,” remarking that all is not well in Moscow, says that seven of Moscow’s regular radio stations are not working, while the others are broadcasting in a disorganised fashion.

Some are sending out communiques several days old and others are omitting the usual references to the “brutal Nazi overlords” and are substituting classical music. There is similar disorganisation in their German, French, English and Spanish broadcasts, which repeat the same statement all night.