Russians
THE CHINA MẠIL, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941.
Fighting Hard
To Evade Kiev Encirclement
Substantial
Force Withdrawn
(Military Commentary by "Annalist”)
DESPITE THE MOUNTING GERMAN WINTER CLAIMS REGARDING THEIR SUCCESSES AT CAMPAIGN
THAT
DESCRIBING GERMANY'S
TER CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA, THE BERLIN CORRESPONDENT LER NACHRICHTEN" YESTER DAY STRESSED THEIR EFFECT
KIEY THERE ARE INDICATIONS MARSHAL BUDENNY WITHDREW A SUB-PREPARATIONS FOR A WIN- STANTIAL PORTION OF HIS FORCES AND THOSE THREATENED WITH ENCIRCLEMENT ARE STILL FIGHTING DESPERATELY IN THEIR EFFORTS TO ESCAPE.
The Germans admit this resistance but allege that an increasing tendency towards disintegration is becoming apparent.
PLOUGH TO BOMBER
OF THE SWISS PAPER "BAS-
ON
THE PRODUCTION OF GOODS FOR CIVILIAN USE.
The correspondent stated that selling furs, boots, clothing, overcoats, woollen goods.
shops and body and bed linen lack
materials containing natural pro- ducts.
Leather goods have been prac- tically unobtainable for a year.—
It is perhaps unkind to remind them that they made & similar Router. allegation just eight weeks ago and the disintegration has proved to exist only in their imagination.
NAZIS
90000000000000000 AIRMEN
VON PAPEN RETURNS TO TURKEY
his
DEER STALKERS
A CHANGE
HUNTING FOR THE POT, AS FROM HUNTING ITALIANS, IS THE FAVOURITE SPORT OF A SOUTH AFRICAN AIR FORCE SQUADRON, STA- TIONED IN THE SUDAN. TWO OR THREE PICKED SHOTS LED BY ..., THE' MAJOR IN CHARGE OF THE SQUADRON, TAKE A TRUCK INTO THE BUSH ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK TO HUNT THE LOCAL DEER.
other "I went with them the
The German Ambos- sador to Turkey, Franz von Popen, arrived back in Turkey by air yesterday from visit to Germany, ac- cording to an Istanbul telegram to Berlin.
Von Papen proceed-day" said a visitor, "and very ex- ed to the summer re- sidence of the German Embassy at Therapia, the telegram adds. Reuter.
clting it was. Standing in the open truck, we pushed slowly through the bush, until one of the South Africans nudged me and said, "There they are.
"They must have
like eyes hawks, for I could see nothing,at all at Brat. A moment dater. I saw seven deer running away over the scrub. The young fight- er pilot at the wheel of the lorry, steered in and out through the thorn bushes and in and out of ditches, keeping devel with but
We want to give them some 'chance,' said the Major.
cers and political commissars IMPRESSED or getting any nearer to the deer.
Similarly stories of Soviet om-
abandoning their men can be tak- cu as wishful thinking.
All evidence received from the Russian front has shown the splendid morale of the Rus- sian soldiers and of
the ramark. able comradeship between officers and men which had not proved subversive to discipline.
While motering along a wm - ing lune, past fishing stream". woods and dairy farms, you may suddenly come to a wide stretch of lund. brown, desolate and fat. You knew this place a year ago.
Then there were fields turnips, corn and mustard, divid- ed by ditches. hedgerows, high clumps of beeches, and patches of has gorse. That pastoral scene been changing into an aerodrome since you last saw it.
Although the situation east of Kiev is admittedly confused, thus: giving German propaganda an op.
In many parts of the British portunity to exercise its inventive-
BY
LENINGRAD
DEFENCE SYSTEM
THE SUPERIORITY of the Leningrad de-
Isics country people have watched ness, news from Leningrad and fence system compared to the Maginot Line,
their fields going the same way.
prints After the blue
stage. every tree is removed, routs and haw- all, by tractors with wire sers. The hedgerows are wrench- ed from the ground. and any obstructions left are blasted out with explosives. Ditches are cleared and pipes laid down and connect covered with gravel to
Odessa is more clear-cut and dis- linetly more favourable.
Appalling Losses
Appalling losses have been in-
flicted upon the German attackers and the Russians have actually gained ground in counter-attacks.
The slaughter among German the main system of drainage. officers has been particularly heavy, and confirmation of this fact has been found in the cap-
Ponds and hollows are filled in Huts are erected for the work - inen. Diesel-driven shovels ex- cavate the ground and bulldozers push it about. When this is done the land is more or less level.
Workmen then haul ploughing disks over the broken earth and chains and harrowS to make smooth surface.
а
when
tured diary of a Nazi officer of the 93rd Division,
both as regards the number of fortifications and their adaptation to the swampy terrain,
is admitted in the German "Militaerische Korrespondenz und Deutschland.”
It says: "The French fought with tradi- tional bravery but without the deep political conviction which makes the Russians more stubborn and is causing heavy losses."
rows
-
"Standing in the lorry was 2 roat in itself, but the Major, per- haps using fighter aircraft tech- nique, brought down a fine buck with a clean shot through the. Ineck from about 300 yards.
"Enemy aircraft must dodge quickly put of the way of marks- men like these."
45 BAG FOXES NEAR LONDON
Forty-five foxes have been shot within twelve miles of Charing Cross by members and staff of Coulsdon and Purley Council (Surrey).
'Twenty-eight were killed in Seladon Woods. well-known Surrey beauty spot.
en-
Since hunting was stopped, have been steadily foxes croaching on the district and poultry farmers protested to the Purley and Coulsdon Council.
It says the Russian defences, the ground, concrete pyramids have proved "extraordinarily and barbed wire. THE WEATHER SEEMS TO HAVE BROKEN IN THE LEN- severe obstacles" consisting of
Garrisons were able to occupy the great ring of forts imme- THE huge INGRAD AREA AND
and tank traps
diately the squads of. alvil NIGHTS ARE INTENSELY
of often 10 or 12 miles deep
workers had finished their con- COLD. RAINS AND MIST ARE
trunks rammed several struction, it adds. IMPEDING OPERATIONS
To pine
The forts earth, as well as
are fully protected Mr. G. A. Ballard, surveyor to THE ADVANTAGE OF THE DE- yards into the
pine trees cut down a yard above against all but the heaviest bombs the council, said: "I know the FENCE.
and shells.
county hunting fraternity would Tribute is also paid to the not approve of what is being done, .garrisons formed by Leningrad but one fox alone killed thirty- factory workers which "have one chickens in a night. proved excellent" despite their very short training.
■
The last polish conies blade-graders, long straight-edg-| (ed knives. plane down the earth. Even when no gradient is more
In the extreme south, at Odessa, than one in sixty the land is a number of unsuccessful attacks still not level enough for every, have been severely punished by day use.
Runways of tarmac or concrete the Russian defenders and it is criss-cross and encircle the land-reported the Rumanians have had the to be stiffened with German, rein- clsewhere ing ground, but
forcements. land is still crumbly and soft. and wiry grass is needed to blind
it.
lines are laid.
Severe Mauling
mauled.
REST CURE FOR TIRED AIRMEN
AIR ATTACKS ARE OF LIT- TLE USE IN THESE SECTORS, THE STATEMENT CONCLUDES.
REUTER.
"Thero is an old black fox with a white-tipped tail who seems to be the grandfather of most of the foxes in the district. "He has been too cute for us so far."
Stung By Wasp He Still Sat
Gradually new landmarks 40- In the central sector successful pear on the sky-line. Cranes are Russian counter-attacks are re-
A contented group of airmen Lifting girders into place; soon ported in the neighbourhood of the first hangars are raised, Water Glukhov, where one of the pincer Sprawl on the deck of a luxurious house-boat, watching а felluca pipes are put down. Telephone arms of Marshal von Bock's troops with its graceful towering sail
beyond Gomel has been severely glide serenely past them
on the placid Nile, Only two or three At Smolensk, too, the Initia- days ago they were with their tive is still with Marshal Timo- squadrons among the choking dust shenko, although it may be ex- and sandstorms of the desert. pected the Germans will now To-day they are unbelievably a nineteen-year-old prefect of Douglas High School devote more of their attention peace, beside the green fields and sitting for a vital examination. to this sector, where they have still waters. been (driven back as much as 30' miles in places,
Until now the aerodrome has been in the hands of a depart- ment known throughout the RA.F. as "Works" and Bricks,"
represented by a civilian resident engineer, who through contractors Constructs the aerodrome and its buildings. As the first crop of charlock and gorse comes up with the grass and buildings be come habitable the R.A.F. takes
over. The first man in RAF
A WASP STING nearly spoilt the chance of a
Walter Callister had been accepted as a student The houseboat is part of the at Manchester University to train for the teaching magnificent effort which the
After 92 days of violent battle Gezira Club in Cairo is making on profession, provided he obtained higher school certl the Russians are still fighting behalf of British soldiers and air-ficate. uniform to arrive on the station strongly and the only one of the Island, it has accommodation for men. Moored alongside Gezira
obscure reason known⠀⠀ as the
Jeep". It is his job. atores and petrol":"
Sotters
་
Soon cooks and butchers, and photographers, firemen and armament officers, "come along..
As the succeeding crop.of thist- les is scythed down on the land- such as parachute stores, crow: Although the bont is called the ing ground, more and more trac-rooms, an operations room, lubri- "Puritan" there is a bar aboard; tora, caterpillars and trailers ar- cant stores, and a'maps room. But as well as baths, reading rooms
The headmaster, Mr. A. he said, the board would be pre rive, as well as fire tenders, crash with level ground, petrol for and practically every other amen-
Sykes, was determined that all pared to allow the boy to dietate
the paper, apparatus, ambulance, and ration power, and bombs for ammunity which Libya hasn't got,
tion, the aerodrome is ready for The Club runs a pension in the hard work which the youth
Tho, quggestion was eagerly fic- At each bombar station there use. The squadrons of aircraft Cairo on the same lines. It has had put into his preparation should must be a level area, a full bomb arrive with their crews long be in addition, set aside one of its not be sacrifeed without an effort: cepted and that afternoon a form dump, and full petrol tanks. A fore there are any comforts for polo grounds for hockey, football He put through a long-distance master wrote, to the scholar's dic
land cricket pitches for the troops, call to the scoretory of the Joint,tation and Walter got his chance. hundred Uther things are needed, them
Working in the garden on the Matriculation Board of the North- is the Equipment Officer for some main objectives captured by the 30 airmen and 30 soldiers in its eve of the examination, Walter ern Universities, asking if the Germans is Kiev, the least impor handsome, cabins. The occupants was stung on the back of the right paper could be postponed for the to-gettant militarlly and strategically are put up for seven days, free hand by a wasp.
* Manx-candidates. compared with Leningrad or
of charge, after a spell of Libyan At once the hand began to swell, Moscow-Reuter,
warfare, the change is heavenly to and was still bandaged and un-
He Got His Chance tired men.
usable next morning when he reached the school.
The secretary was sympathetic, He saw no hope of taking the but sorry it couldn't be done. But vital physics paper due to be in the exceptional circumstances, cet in the afternoon...
H
yans,
7
+