HITLER’S VAIN ORDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1943, Page 3

HITLER’S VAIN ORDER

’ASSAULTS ON LENINGRAD IN 1941

JOY THROUGHOUT RUSSIA.

OVER RAISING OF SIEGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, January .18. Hitler ordered that Leningrad shquld be taken by storm on August 21, 1941/two months after the attack on Russia. The Germans, from three directions, hurled in 32 infantry divisions, four tank and four motorised divisions, and a cavalry brigade. This army numbered 300,000, and its equipment included 6000 field-guns, 1000 tanks, and a fleet of 1000 planes. The news of the raising of the siege was heard with deep joy throughout Russia. The special communique was relayed to the loudspeakers in the streets of the towns and villages. During the most desperate days of the siege Leningrad had become an inspiration and symbol of the Russians’ resistance. The offensive which burst the Nazi ring was planned by Marshals Zhukov and Voroshilov. MOVE INTO DONETZ ON WIDE ATTACKING FRONT. t CLEARANCE OF IMPORTANT RAILWAY. LONDON, January 13. On the southern front the Russians crossed the Manych River and occupied the town and railway station of Divnoye, 60 miles south-west of Elista. The Russians on the Voronezh front routed the Fourth Italian Army Corps and occupied the railway station of Kamonka, 30 miles west of Kantemiirovka. The town of Ostrogorsk is vncircled, ' . The number of prisoners captured on the Voronezh front on January 8 was 31,000, comprising 22,000 Hungarians, 7000 Italians, and 2000 Germans. While the Russian front is still in motion in many areas between Voronezh and the Caucasus (says a British Official Wireless message), the latest and most striking development appears to be that since capturing Millerovo the Russian have gone on to reach the Donetz River on a front of some 50 miles on both sides of Kamensk. At the westernmost point, this brings them only about 20 miles from the great Donetz industrial country, and it is probably somewhere between there and Kamensk that they crossed the river. East of Kamensk, too, the Russians have captured villages on the Donetz from which they command the lateral railway running eastward into the Don bend.

South of the Don a further advance has been made along the railway to the neighbourhood of Proletarskaya, while in the Caucasus the pursuit of the enemy along the main line has continued to nearly half-way from Georgievsk to Armavir. As a result of the fall of Millerovo the Russians’ hold on'the railway from a point 50 miles south of Voronezh is now secure up to 50 miles west of the river. Therefore, nearly 200 miles of this important lateral railway can be

used for the transfer of troops and supplies from one position to another. The Moscow radio reports that the Germans have lost several niore heavily fortified lines near Stalingrad. Their troops in the western part of the area have been split.

Today’s Moscow communique reports the killing of more than 1000 in the Stalingrad area, and says that 850 prisoners were brought in and much booty was captured.