VIOLENT FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1941, Page 5

VIOLENT FIGHTING

EXPECTED IN THE STREETS OF MOSCOW ACCORDING TO “PRAVDA.” CITY MUST BE MADE A TRAP. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 24. The "Pravda” in an article today says; “The situation is serious. The enemy is launching one attack after another and is still advancing. We need greater output. Our materia! losses have been very great. We must be prepared to see the streets of Moscow become the scene of violent fighting. This means that every window must become a firing point and every citizen must become a soldier. Moscow today is in danger.” The paper declares that the whole of Moscow must become a trap into which the Germans will put thousands of their heads. German commentators declared that German guns have reached several points about 35 miles from Moscow and their strength is increasing hourly. A Russian war correspondent says that many villages have changed hands several times in the battle west of Moscow. For eight days fierce fighting has been going on for Kalinin, in the streets of which obstacles and barricades have been erected while the squares of the city are furrowed with /"drenches, says the Moscow “Izvestia’s” “The struggle goes on for every inch of the Soviet line, for every street and for every house. Some blocks of buildings have changed hands several times. Kalinin is only one of several places through which the Germans are attempting to force a way into Moscow.” Reuter’s correspondent in Kuibyshev says the latest reports show that the approaches to Moscow are completely blocked to the south and south-west of the city. Toward the end of last week and the beginning of this week Marshal von Bock has unsparingly used tanks and mechanised infantry as a battering ram in an attempt to break through from Mojaisk and Malo Yaroslavets. Simultaneously he has maintained pressure with all types of arms in the Bryansk, Orel and Kalinin regions, seeking to find weak spots and keep the Soviet troops spread over se- ) tyeral sectors. It is not yet known how General Zhukov has managed to stave off the great frontal assault by immense columns of German tanks. Sunday was apparently a day of intense German assault, in which a series of frontal thrusts were co-ordinated with the reckless use of German planes in rain squalls in an attempt to smash the Russian rear.