GERMAN RETREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1941, Page 6

GERMAN RETREAT

ON THE EASTERN FRONT RESEMBLES ROUT COLLAPSE WEST OF MOSCOW. BOTH FLANKS SMASHED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON. December 17. Further important Russian progress on the whole front, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, has been made in the last 24 hours. The retreat of the German left wing on the Moscow front resembles a rout. This wing seemed irresistible until a fortnight ago, when it was pushing forward to envelop Moscow, but now it has definitely crumbled, as the Russians have recaptured Kalinin. They are now driving the remnants of five divisions towards Rjev and the source of the Volga. “This Russian success can scarcely be exaggerated,” says “The Times” Stockholm correspondent, “because, in conjunction with similar progress on the other Moscow wing, around Tula, it must compel the main German forces in the centre of the Moscow front to attempt a hurried and difficult withdrawal or face complete encirclement and annihilation. In any case the operation must entail the abandonment of much material and losses 6f men. The morale of the Germans has perceptibly deteriorated, especially in the Kalinin area, whereas the Russians everywhere are in the finest fettle.”