GERMANS IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1942, Page 4

GERMANS IN RUSSIA

FURTHER “CORRECTIONS” OF LINES INTIMATION BY'NAZI PAPER. SOVIET GUERRILLAS HAMPER ENEMY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, January 15. German newspapers inform their readers that further corrections of the ,German lines in Russia may be desirable, adding that the “Russians are gaining no important strategical advantages and are merely occupying ground which the Germans intended to evacuate anyhow.” Special troops are being organised to deal with Russian guerrillas who are now widely equipped with rifles fitted with silencers.

The Moscow radio declared that guerrillas were recently successful in the town and suburbs of’’Taganrog. A telephone line to Mariupol was cut three times on the Russian front line nearing Taganrog. » Describing the recapture of Medyn, the Tass News Agency says the Germans built strong fortifications outside the town and mined the approaches. A Russian unit penetrated the eastern outskirts and another broke through the western suburbs. The Germans retreated to the centre of the town, where the Russians were forced to storm every house and cellar. A large part of the Germans escaped after setting fire to the town but the bodies of hundreds of Germans littered the streets. The Russians captured much booty, including tanks and lorries.

STRIKING BACK

RUSSIA’S WINTER ARMY

DISASTER FOR GERMANS FORECASTED.

BY BRITISH MILITARY WRITER.

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright)

(Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, January 15.

A belief that the Russians will push the Germans into the Baltic Sta-i tes, across the Polish frontier and out of the Ukraine before the spring is expressed bj 7 the “Daily Express” military writer.

“The losses in such a retreat might well mean irretrievable ruin for the German military machine,” he states. “The Germans have exhausted themselves with appalling losses in a vain attempt to capture Moscow. Stalin waited for the right moment to turn and strike back with a new winter army, which the Germans never knew existed. What adds to the Russian achievements is the skill with which they have been able to overcome supply difficulties as they advance. The Germans destroyed all the railways as they fell back but the Russians showed speed in their repair work equal to anything the enemy is able to do.”