VARIED TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1941, Page 5

VARIED TACTICS

TRIED BY THE ENEMY MAIN RELIANCE ON HAMMER BLOW. EXTENDED RUSSIAN GAINS IN SOUTH. LONDON, November 27. The Germans in their latest drive against Moscow frequently attempt to eat piecemeal into the Russian lines by sending forward small groups of tanks or detachments of heavily armed automatic riflemen who try to “winkle” into the rear of Russian advanced positions but the Germans’ main tactic is still the hammer-blow.

When they piled four tank divisions into the narrow front northward and southward of Volokolamsk it was not to be supposed that such weight of armour, in addition to the supporting troops, could immediately be held and the Russians admit that some of this force came out on the Klin highway. The Germans, however, have been fighting for 10 days, for which reason they are losing strength as the battle becomes bloodier and more intense.

The Kuibyshev correspondent of thei Associated Press reports that Germantank and infantry divisions\ operating in the Stalinogorsk direction, southeast of Tula, have advanced on a ninemile front.

The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says the Russian drive in the Ukraine, after progressing from the Voroshilovgrad direction for about 70 miles, has begun swerving south-west toward the Sea of Azov. If this is no mere feint and Marshal Timoshenko is able to press the wedge home, pinching the German forces aimed at Rostov against the coast, he will thus scotch the operations directed against the Caucasus. Large numbers of gliders and Junkers and also three divisions of paratroops, estimated to comprise 7000 men, have arrived at East Crimean airfields from bases in Rumania and Bulgaria.