R.A.F. UNITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 5

R.A.F. UNITS

FIGHTING IN BATTLE FOR MOSCOW STALIN INSPECTS DEFENCES OF CAPITAL, i / TOUR IN ARMOURED TRAIN. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, October 21. M. Stalin, in a heavily armoured train yesterday travelled over 300 miles of the Moscow front super- . vising the defences of the city, says the “Daily Express’s” Stockholm correspondent. In spite of the German bombers and heavy artillery fire he conferred with General Zhukov, the newly appointed commander in the outer defences of Moscow. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express” reports that Royal Air Force units have been transferred from the Murmansk and Leningrad areas and are now fighting in the battle fo» Moscow. Moscow radio said that tanks and planes from Britain and the United States are arriving in the fighting line. NAZI SOUTHERN THRUST. Reports from the other great battlefield, the southern Ukraine, indicate that the Germans are making an enormous effort to reach the coveted oil and industrial regions of the Donetz Basin and beyond them, the Caucasus. The latest Moscow communique speaks of stubborn fighting in the area of Taganrog. This town, whose capture the Germans claimed on October 18, is 65 miles by land from the important strategical centre, Rostov. The Breslau radio has declared, regarding this sector, “Great events are impending,” and it describes the Russians as being in full flight; but the Berlin radio admits repeated and stubborn counter-attacks. German and Italian reports complain of the extreme cold hampering operations on this front. Indicating the extreme German economy of forces everywhere except in the major thrusts, “The Times” correspondent on the German frontier says that the Estonian islands of Dago and Osel are still mainly held by the Russians. The German thrust against Murmansk seems to have been brought to a standstill. The “Pravda” says that after 100 days’ fighting the Germans are not in the approaches of Murmansk but are far off in the mountains beyond the mountain pass. HEAVY LOSSES INFLICTED ON ENEMY IN OREL AREA. (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) MOSCOW, October 21. A communique says: “Fighting is going on along the whole front and is particularly fierce in the Kalinin, Mojaisk and Malo Yaroslavets sectors. Qur troops in the Orel area withstood the enemy’s advance and inflicted heavy losses. Soviet tanks and units, in several days of heavy fighting, destroyed scores of tanks, guns and motorlorries, carrying fuel and infantry.” STREET BATTLE GERMANS DRIVEN OUT OF TOWN. THRUST REPELLED IN ANOTHER AREA. (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, October 21. The Moscow radio reports a fierce street battle in one town, between a large number of tanks and infantiy. The Germans were driven out of the town and forced to retreat across a river. , ~ A German break through at another point resulted in a battle lasting through the night. The Russians coun-ter-attacked and checked the thrust.