ENEMY CHECKED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1941, Page 5

ENEMY CHECKED

ON MOSCOW APPROACHES SOME GROUND REGAINED < BY RUSSIANS. TANK ATTACK ON ROSTOV BROKEN UP. (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, October 27. Despatches from the Moscow front confirm an earlier report that the thrust towards Moscow has been checked at all points, says the British United Press Kuibyshev correspondent. The Red Army, counter-attacking, has regained some ground and savage fighting continues in the direction of Malo Yaroslavetz and Mojaisk. The Moscow radio reports that the enemy crossed the River Aro early in the morning, but the Russians counterattacked and beat them back to the other side.

German pressure on the southern front is still increasing and new forces have been hurled into action in an attempt to break through to the town of “S.” So far the attacks have met with a stiff resistance. The Russians broke up a mass assault of 100 tanks in an important sector on the approaches to Rostov. The German news agency today states what the Russians freely admitted, namely, that every house in Moscow is being turned into a fortress, but adds that the military authorities have received information that the Russians have arranged for the destruction of the city. "Dynamite, straw and matches,” it states, “have already been issued to squads entrusted with the task.” Russian newspapers state that factories moved from Moscow are operating at present in the Ural Mountains.

A German communique says: “Despite unfavourable weather, operations in the East have further progressed. In an attempt to delay our advance in the Donetz basin, the Russians counter-at-tacked, but they were thrown back with heavy casualties.”