ATTACK ON KHARKOV

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1941, Page 5

ATTACK ON KHARKOV

IMPORTANT INDUSTRIAL . CITY

WAR & .OTHER FACTORIES.

_ MUCH MACHINERY REMOVED •y OR DESTROYED.

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, October 27.

The military correspondent of “The Times” says that Kharkov’s significance is in its industries and also the fact that it is southern Russia’s most important junction. Before the fiveyear plans Kharkov’s population was 400,000, and it is now over 800,000. The industries include one of the largest Russian aircraft plants, a huge tractor factory, machine-tool plants, locomotive workshops and also electro-techni-cal works.

Whole sections of Kharkov are now perishing in the flames of fires started partly by German bombs and partly by Russian incendiaries, the writer says. Vital industrial plants have been either removed to the Urals or destroyed.

The German onslaught on the Moscow front has intensified, but the Russians everywhere are putting up the staunchest resistance. The latest reports reaching Kuibyshev indicate that General Zhukov’s troops are successfully withstanding heavy German attacks in the Mojaisk and Malo Yaroslavets zones. The renewed violent pressure in these sectors apparently began on October 24, with the Germans employing a huge air fleet and masses of tanks supported by violent artillery and mortar fire. Dispatches say that the Germans have managed to achieve slight penetration in the vicinity of the town of “K,” but a break-through is denied. Russian units which were encircled in this region for 10 days fought their way out during October 23 and 24 and reached their main forces in good order and with all their equipment. A dispatch to the “Red Star” admits that the Russians have abandoned two villages. Moscow radio states that the Germans suffered tremendous losses in attempts to break through on the main road to Moscow from the vicinity of Malo Yaroslavets. Prisoners who were taken in this sector said they had had no food for 48 hours and the troops were still not equipped with winter clothing. Fierce fighting is still raging in KMmin, and all the efforts of the Germans to drive the Russians from the ncfth-eastern section of the city have failed.

Berlin quotes German soldiers’ references to appalling wea.thei- on the Moscow front, where transports are stuck in the mud for days, depriving whole regiments of food. Berlin admits that the Russians are exploiting the German predicament by attacking with the bayonet. The offensive against the Crimea continues. The isthmus is still strongly held, and a Russian report says that a German thrust three miles into the Soviet lines was fully thrown back. STILL EXPLODING MINES LEFT BY RUSSIANS IN KIEV. GREAT CITY ALMOST DESTROYED. LONDON, October 26. The Vichy news agency says that the great industrial city of Kiev has been almost completely destroyed by mines left by the Russians when they retreated. Though the Germans have already cleared up over 10,000 mines, others continue to explode.