KIEV IN RUINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1941, Page 5

KIEV IN RUINS

RUSSIAN DEVASTATION METHODS MINES STILL EXPLODING. NIGHTMARE FOR GERMANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, October 28. “The centre of Kiev is nothing ; but a heap of ruins such as even Europe has never seen before. Nothing remains but the blackened skeletons of buildings,” says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent, quoting a Swedish journalist who has returned from Kiev. I “Fires which were started in the city’s main boulevard raged for five days. “The Russians carried out the destruction with diabolical thoroughness and cleverness. For two months they had steadily prepared for this destruction and laid tens of thousands of land mines over an area of an almost incredible size. “One German officer said that in clearing one block of houses he found 250 boxes, each containing 501 b of dynamite. The majority of mines explode before they are discovered. “Kiev is a city of hell, because every house is a live volcano under which may be hidden tons of explosives ready to blow up at any moment. Even now there are new disasters daily—new explosions in houses which were considered safe and were accommodating German officials. “When the Germans stormed Kiev block by block fairly large fires were raging in the electric power station, the telephone building, the great Stankostroi works and other vital factories, but the Germans thought they had managed to get the fires under control. Then two days later hell broke loose. “It started when a terrific explosion blew Kiev’s citadel to smithereens, after which six-storied houses and gigantic stores began going up ;in the air) and large fires broke out throughout the city. Bottles of petrol hidden under floors and behind walls spread the fire with every new explosion. “It will be years before this once proud city can repair destruction that is so complete.”