HOPEFUL VIEW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 5

HOPEFUL VIEW

TAKEN BY RUSSIAN SPOKESMAN POSITION BEFORE MOSCOW & ELSEWHERE! ENEMY FAILURE TO ADVANCE IN SOUTH. LONDON, November 12. Reviewing the fighting on the | Russian fronts in the last week, the chief of the Soviet Information Bureau, M. Lozovsky, said that the position near Moscow had been improved. The advance of the Germans was not only held but the Russian troops were making daily counter-attacks and inflicting a huge loss in manpower and equipment on the German army. The , enemy was making no progress on : Moscow’s western front, nor at ' Tula, 100 miles south of the capi- ' tai. Later this morning the Moscow radio referred to the present battle for Tula ! as very serious. It said that in the last few days the Germans have launched no fewer than 15 attacks against Tula in an effort to force a river crossing. The defenders have had to retreat slightly. M. Lozovsky in his statement said that in the Ukraine, on the front between Taganrog and Rostov, battles were still going on with unabated fury, but in spite of their pressure the Germans were unable to advance. The "Daily Telegraph’s" Stockholm correspondent says that a total of 100.000 Poles have joined Marshal Timoshenko’s reserves on the Don line. In the Crimea, where both Germans and Rumanians lately have repeatedly claimed to be pursuing a beaten en- t emy, their reports now speak of strong Russian resistance. The Luftwaffe is reported to be bombing both Sebastopol and Kerch incessantly. The Rome newspaper “Gazetta del Popola” says that the Germans, found Yalta, the Soviet holiday and health resort on the north Crimean coast, in ruins’. The appearance of the town was ghastly. Fine villas and sanatoria had been reduced to twisted masses of girders and cement and scarcely a building in the modern section of the town was untouched by fire. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express" says that Admiral Kuznetsov, the Russian Naval Minister and Commander-in-Chief, has taken over the supreme command in the Crimea. The Soviet army newspaper “Red Star” states that the bad weather in Russia is steadily forcing the Germans to abandon the use of motor-vehicles and armoured vehicles. They are now largely transporting the troops and materials by horse vehicles. SOVIET REPORT TROOPS ENGAGE ENEMY ON ALL FRONTS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.1 a.m.) RUGBY, November 12. The Russian morning communique states: “On Tuesday night our troops | engaged the enemy on all fronts." BRITISH LOCOMOTIVES LARGE NUMBERS GOING TO RUSSIA. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 11. ■ Fifty freight locomotives owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and 92 by the London and North-Eastern Railway have been equipped for service overseas to help the Russian allies and, togethei’ with tenders and spare parts, have either been or are being dispatched. Some are already in service. The locomotives provided by the L.M.S., before being sent overseas, are .being equipped with oil-burning apparatus for using oil fuel. All the L.N.E.R. engines are of a former Great Central Railway design which proved to be especially suitable for overseas use in the last war. The Southern Railway is building 100 steel-framed, open 12-tpn wagons. The L.N.E.R. is helping by .cutting wagon timbers from logs and supplying certain iron work details for these wagons, while the L.M.S. is assisting by providing the stampings of standard wagon parts and by supplying considerable quantities of timber. The loss in engine-power to the L.M.S. and L.N.E.R: will be shared by the Southern and Great Western RailI ways.