FORCED BACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1941, Page 6

FORCED BACK

RUSSIANS IN TULA AREA DECISIVE STRUGGLE IN PROSPECT CONTINGENT SOVIET SUCCESS IN SOUTH. GERMANS DISLODGED FROM NEW LINES. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, November 26. After desperate fighting in the Tula direction, the Red Army was forced to retreat in face of superior enemy forces, says the Moscow radio. The Germans’occupied the town of X and are now trying to turn the Tula flank and cut the Tula-Serpukhov Highway, with the intention of joining forces with the Germans westward of the highway. Tula is preparing for decisive battles in defence of the city. The Germans, advancing north-east-wards in the Klin district, captured several villages, but the Red Army counter-attacked and re-took five villages. The Russians continue to develop their successes in this area. All the German attacks westward of Moscow have been beaten off. Strong German infantry and tank forces hurled forward in the Stalinogorsk sector have broken through and reached the outskirts of the town of V. Russian troops are fighting to prevent the enemy advancing further northeastwards. The “Izvestia”' reports that the Germans were forced to retreat a further six miles on the southern front. The Red Army has continued its successful advance south-westwards and yesterday dislodged the Germans from new lines in which they were trying to entrench themselves.

HARD FIGHTING GERMANS PAYING HEAVILY FOR PROGRESS. IN BLOOD AND MATERIAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 26. “The war in Russia is now at a most interesting stage, indeed a critical stage. On the Moscow front where the Germans continue furiously to hurl in forces in undiminished numbers against the approaches to the capital,” says “The Times” Stockholm correspondent. Paying heavily in blood and material for every yard captured,” the correspondent adds, “the Germans are still slowly progressing,, particularly along the railway to Moscow through Klin. The exact position cannot be determined at present, but it is clear that the Russians have thus far foiled the German plan to envelop Moscow—at least on the northern half of the Moscow front. Fighting in the Klin area has been raging for nearly a week on or near the railway and main road to Moscow. The next important thorough* fare which the would-be besiegers must encounter is the Moscow-Volga Canal, about twenty miles away. Presumably the fighting zone has not approached this appreciably, as neither side has yet mentioned the canal. “The position on the Tula wing of the Moscow front is critical, as German forces from the direction of Kursk are striking hard to get round to the eastward in a wide sweep. This movement, which is facilitated by the hard ground, has been long prepared and reinforcements are believed to have been brought up even from the area northward of Kharkov.”