VIOLENT AS EVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1941, Page 5

VIOLENT AS EVER

NAZI ONSLAUGHT AGAINST MOSCOW Position in Tula Area More Difficult ENEMY ATTEMPTING OUTFLANKING MOVE ON SOUTH SOME GROUND GAINED AT TREMENDOUS COST LONDON, November 26. In Russia, the violent German onslaught against Moscow shows no sign of slackening. The situation is described as being particularly serious north-west and south of the capital. At Klin, to the north, the position is tense and complicated. German tanks have reached the railway station at Klin, which is on the main line cf railway between Moscow and Leningrad, about 50 miles from the capital. The Russians are rushing up fresh troops to halt the German drive. At Tula the situation has become more difficult. Tremendous German forces are maintaining the offensive. The enemy is hurling infantry, tanks and planes towards a point 30 miles south-east of Tula. While the Germans are still keeping up a frontal assault on Tula from the west, it appears that they are also trying to bypass the town to the south. In two sectors German attempts to reach the main Moscow road have been smashed. It is stated that the winter is setting in earlier than usual. The official Russian spokesman, M. Lozovsky, again declared himself confident that the new offensive would fail. The Germans, he said, where they had gained ground, had done so onlv at the cost of tremendous losses.

DECISIVE STAGE IN BATTLE FOR CAPITAL SOVIET ESTIMATE OF TOTAL GERMAN LOSSES. NEARLY SIX MILLION MEN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 25. The Russian people have been warned that the present fierce and ■ bloody battles which have been raging for 10 days will decide the fate of Moscow. Fighting is reported for the first time to be in progress at Stalinogorsk, 30 miles south-east of Tula, and in Tula itself fighting is continuing for the railway station. “The battle for Moscow, in which the Germans are using more than half their tank divisions, has now entered the decisive stage,” the Moscow radio says, “but our troops are fighting with the eyes of the world fixed on them. They know their duty. Moscow will be defended at all costs. Our motto must be: ‘Not a step backward.’ Let us fight and smash the enemy.”

The Turkish radio says that according to German reports the Nazi armoured forces are now within 19 miles of Moscow.

The Moscow radio says that in the eastern campaign so far the Germans have lost nearly 6,000,000 men killed, wounded and taken prisoner. The Russian losses are 2,122,000, of whom 490,000 are killed, 1,112,000 wounded and 520,000 missing. The Germans have lost over 15,000 tanks, about 13,000 planes and about 19,000 guns. Soviet losses are 7,900 tanks, 6,400 planes and 12,900 guns.