GREAT DIFFICULTIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 February 1942, Page 3

GREAT DIFFICULTIES

OVERCOME BY RUSSIANS IN REGION OF LATEST VICTORY. t -fi DECLINE IN ENEMY MORALE. (British Official Wireless.) |- (Received This Day. 10.13 a.m.) i RUGBY, February 25. Moscow reports state that the Soviet | victory in the Staraya Russa region | gives the Russians control of the most vital sector of the Leningrad area for the spring offensive. The first details of the great battle around Staraya Russa disclose the terrific difficulties overcome by the advancing Russians. These included chest-high snows, frost and a lack of roads, together with a desperate resistance by the Germans, who were throwing in hugh reserves. The Soviet offensive was marked by a co-ordina-tion of artillery, infantry, tanks, aircraft and ski units. Despite the refusal of the German army command to surrender. the enemy morale is weakened, with German soldiers frequently deserting. They complain of the lack of food and warm clothing and say they are fighting the Russian tanks only under threat of death. These facts are confirmed from numerous orders captured from German generals.

tures of 30 or 40 degrees below zero. Berlin concedes that the Russian parachutists are well trained and know how to defend themselves. Though it is distinctly more active than in December and January, the Russian battlefront is still dominated by winter, says the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times.” The increased activity is partly due to changed German tactics, which Berlin describes as active defence after a period of passive defence. APPROACH TO LENINGRAD. There is no evidence to support a German claim to have taken nearly 57.000 prisoners since the New Year, but whether this is true or false, the Russians are more aggressive today than in January. This is most evident on the Leningrad front, where the garrison and relieving forces southwest of Schlusselburg are now within hearing distance of each other’s artillery, The Russian hammering continues unabatedly, and the fact that a passage has not yet been battered through the investing forces demonstrates the toughness of the German resistance in fulfilling, the High Command’s orders that Leningrad should not be relieved.

The Russians are increasingly using guerillas and regular mobile raiding detachments to cause disorder in the enemy’s rear, as part of the preparation for taking the offensive with a large force. These tactics are particularly evident on the approaches to Smolensk and inside White Russia, where some guerillas are operating over a radius of a hundred miles, and also in the Ukraine, where raiders, chiefly well-equipped cavalry, in the next few weeks should yield to the Russians more tangible fruit as their careful preparations mature and some or all, of the German posts fall.