GOOD HEADWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1942, Page 4

GOOD HEADWAY

MADE BY RUSSIANS STARAYA RUSSA ACTION. MAY BECOME LANDMARK IN WAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, March 1. The Russians continue to advance on the north-western and south-west-ern sectors of the front. The “Izvestia” reports that the Russians have captured three more inhabited localities in the north-western sectors and say the Russians are developing their offensive and dealing the enemy blow after blow. The Russians on the southwestern front occupied an important fortified enemy position after a fierce fight in which they partly annihilated two enemy infantry' battalions. The Russian cavalry is pressing forward and occupying place after place. The enemy is launching frequent counterattacks and putting up a stubborn resistance, but is being repulsed. The “Evening Standard’s” military correspondent says the brilliant Russian encircling move on Staraya Russa may become a landmark in the war. constitutes a great threat to the rear o the German army, under von Leeb, which is besieging Leningrad. Von Leeb may be faced with a Dunkirk by land. Sure that they could hold Staraya Russa, the correspondent adds, the Germans put everything into its defence. It was the vital nerve centre of von Leeb’s supply and barred the road to the still more important gap between Lake Ilmen and Lake Peipus. Through this gap run all the German supply lines to the Leningrad iron . The issue remains inconclusive, but tne Germans have had to send von Leeb supplies sorely needed for other purposes. SPANISH LOSSES ON THE EASTERN FRONT. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) MADRID, March 1. Newspaper reports state, that . the Russians took prisoner Major Jiminez, Assistant-Chief of the Blue Division Air Force, after he had parachuted from a plane following on an ail battle. . Lieutenant Alcocer, son of tn Mayor of Madrid, has been killed on the Eastern front. german troops BIG MOVEMENT FROM FRANCE TO RUSSIA. (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, March 1. Nearly all the German troops have been withdrawn from France for service in Russia, says a British United Press correspondent on the Frenc frontier. He adds that even German patrols on the line between the occupied and unoccupied zones are practically non-existent, as a result of whicn there is a tremendous clandestine traffic between the two zones. It is estimated that the Germans had not more than 6.000 troops southward of the Loire River when recently they were reported to be massing on the Spanish border. Two armoured divisions, formerly within striking distance of Spain, are now in the Rhineland, m readiness to be sent anywhere they may be required.