RUSSIAN COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1941, Page 5

RUSSIAN COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

Violent Attacks on Germans in Crimea MADE BY SEBASTOPOL GARRISON ACTION TAKEN ALSO IN LENINGRAD AREA LONDON, December 16. The Russians have opened an offensive in the Crimea. The Germans report violent attacks by the Sebastopol garrison, with the support of coastal batteries. As usual, the Germans state that these attacks were repelled, but they are discreetly silent as to whether they have held their positions. In the Leningrad area, also, the Soviet troops are renewing their pressure against the Germans and if the action taxen is successful, it will enable them to restore communications between Moscow and Leningrad. ■ In the Donetz basin the Russians have recaptured another twenty villages and Soviet planes have inflicted huge losses on the retreating Germans. On the Moscow front the Soviet forces are continuing their offensive. It is now made known that in the capture of Klin, northwest of Moscow, the Russians killed or wounded 13,000 German officers and men and that the booty taken included 122 enemy tanks, 18 armoured cars, over 1,000 motor-cars, 80 heavy guns, and large numbers of lighter guns, trench mortars and rifles. The “Pravda” states that in the Tula area, south of Moscow, the Germans attempted to hold the Russian drive by building powerful fortifications and sowing extensive minefields, but the Soviet troops swept over all obstacles and captured the three towns mentioned in last night’s Moscow communique.