FIERCE RESISTANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1941, Page 5

FIERCE RESISTANCE

OFFERED BY RUSSIANS ON WHOLE CENTRAL SECTOR. POSSIBLE ENEMY AIMS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) RUGBY, October 27. The latest information shows that the Russians continue to offer very fierce resistance on the whole central sector. They have been particularly successful in holding up the thrust at Kalinin, which was specially dangerous because it could be developed in alternative directions—towards the north, where it could be a threat to the troops east of Leningrad, and towards the south, where there could be the start of a drive behind Moscow. There is no confirmation fyom Russian sources that Kharkov is in German hands, as announced by Hitler, during an interview with Count Ciano, obviously to impress his junior partner with the success of German arms. Fighting, however, must be so close to the city—a Russian communique speaks of fighting in the Kharkov direction—that its value as a centre for the production of Russian equipment cannot now be very great. The weather is reported to be very bad, especially in the sector west of Moscow.

There does not appear to be any change at Leningrad or on the Perekop Isthmus. The Germans are still close to Rostov, but have not captured it. The general impression is that the Germans are making the most of the thrust in the south at Kharkov, to divert attention from the lack of an appreciable advance towards Moscow.

A supplementary Soviet communique states: “Russian artillery, operating on the Orel front, inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. In one day a unit destroyed an important pontoon bridge near the village of Kusnetsov, silenced one mortar battery, and killed many enemy soldiers. One battery destroyed six tanks, shot down one dive-bomber, and dispersed a battalion of infantry. Another battery destroyed three German tanks, while a third battery destroyed one battery and blew up an ammunition dump.”