THREAT TO KERCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 November 1941, Page 5

THREAT TO KERCH

AND TO THE CAUCASUS

FIERCE FIGHTING IN CRIMEA.

NEW ENEMY OFFENSIVE NEAR LENINGRAD.

LONDON, November 9. The Germans have opened a strong new offensive near Leningrad. In the Eastern Ukraine the Hungarians claim to have broken the Russian line in several unspecified places. The Russian communique last night reported particularly fierce fighting in the Crimea. “The Times” correspondent, on the German frontier says that German

vanguards in the Crimea have reached '-Sebastopol’s outer defences, but the Russian resistance inspires confidence. The Russians claim that the naval base will prove as hard a nut to crack as Odessa and Leningrad. ■ Kerch, the correspondent says, appears to be more immediately threatened. Its fortifications are less formidable than Sebastopol’s, and the Germans are more eager for prestige reasons to overwhelm the easier objective, enabling a landing on the mainland and thus establishing their-claim that they have begun moving toward the Caucasus. Neutral military circles, he adds, are sceptical about the seriousness of the German intentions to attempt to reach Baku before the spring, because a failure would make disastrous inroads into their oil reserves.