1941-09-23 — Page 2

THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 23, 1941.

REUTER VISITS SOVIET FRONT

Desolate Yelnya Grim Evidences Of Heavy Fighting

(By Reuter's Special Correspondent in Russia, on the Yelnya Smolensk Front).

*I AM WRITING THIS DESPATCH FROM YELNYA, PRINCIPAL TOWN OF THE LARGE SALIENT WHICH THE RUSSIANS RE-CAP. TURED AFTER SMASHING EIGHT GERMAN DIVISIONS IN A MONTH- LONG BATTLE WHICH PROVED ONE OF THE WAR'S FIERCEST STRUGGLES.

"It is now nearly a week since I left Mos¬|

cow for the first trip to the front accorded to ABLE TO

Po

ony foreign journalist. Since then I have tra- MEET ALL velled along many roads

often incredible roads along the Smolensk sector of the DEMANDS

THE UNITED STATES DE-

REACHED A POINT WHERE IT

MANDS FOR TANKS, SMALL

Eastern front.

"One re-captured village I visited remains FENCE PROGRAMME HAS very vividly in my memory. Unlike so many IS ABLE TO MEET ALL DE- others there are few houses still standing, but GUNS AND AMMUNITION, DE the only inhabitants were one peasant and CLARED MR. WILLIAM KNUD- SEN, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF three children, and one blind woman who had THE OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, IN CHICAGO been rendered insane through the experi-YESTERDAY. ences through which she had passed.

Calling for still greater effort, he declared, that it was time for the country to "get behind the armament programme and see it through regardless of the sacrifices we may have to make in our com- fortable standard of living.

"I saw her wandering through, carrying from place to place her only possessions -one pail, one sheepskin and a few pathetic rags.

"But the three children were already busy digging up the potatoes. from the recaptured fields.

Hereabouts, and to the oast, the countryside was devastated by the Germans before they were driven out by the Rus- slan pincer movement further

west.

"The result of this pincer movement was that thousands of Germans were killed or captured, while other German forces were compelled to withdraw rapidly from the bottle-neck, abandoning strong positions and masses of equipment.

Yelnya Ruin

"The Germans are now 11 miles from Yelnya and are being driven further away. Smolensk is still in German hands, but the Rus- sians are not very far off. In Yelnya the only tively intact is one church.

The remainder of this town,

building rela-

which formerly had 5,000 in habitants, now consists mainly of a few chimney stacks and heaps of rubble and ashes.

hut where I was given supper by the local commander and put up on heaps of straw. will tell about the Russian off-

cora later.

Devastation

"This morning I drove across a town that looked like £1 de- vastated piece of Stepney, The Army was generally taking care- of the people whose homes had been burned, but in the villages around life seemed to go on, strangely normally despite the fact that many thatched roofs have been blown away by the blast, and there were many craters in the roadside.

"There were pigs, geese and hens on the roads, but things wore different on entering а country which had either been No Man's Land or occupied by

the Germans who trad aystema

had

tically destroyed or taken away aff livestock which there not been time to evacuate be- 'fore they arrived,

"I think it behoves wake up."--Reuter.

us all

to

Battlefield

ANOTHER

***** GERMANS

TELL

LETTER FROM

KONOYE?

Replying to a ques- tion by newspapermen yesterday whether an ather letter has been received by President Roosevelt from the Ja- panese Prime Minister, Prince Konaye, Mr. Cordell Hull said he had no information about it.-Reuter.

BURMA IMMIGRATION AGREEMENT

OF TRUTH

Increased weight of bombing by the Royal Air Force has driven the Nazis to change their policy of attempting to conceal air raid damage from their people.

on

Their communiques now make a virtue of necessity, and with a great show of moral indignation They assert after a night of vig- orous attacks on Berlin and the Ruhr, that "damage was done to buildings in residential quarters, but no military damage was caus ed." After a very heavy attack, like the attack on the Rühr the night of June 11 they are even franker and admit that "in Cologne, Duisburg and Bochum, great destruction was caused in residential quarters." 'But the communique also says that "in- dustrial plants and railway lines suffered only slight damage."*..

This is the well-worn German An agreement relating to Chin- trick of a lie which is a distorted ese immigration into Burma has half truth. Great destruction been reached on various import-, certainly was caused in Cologne, tant points at the conference be-Duisburg, and Bochum on the much was tween the Chinese and Burmese night of June 11-so delegates in Rangoon yesterday. true. Some of it may well have The points are not detailed in been in residential quarters, for the communique, which, however, in the thickly populated indus- states That they are subject to trial areas of the Ruhr and the acceptance by the two govern Rhineland, houses and munition men's ana to agreement" being factories are packed tightly to- reached on the remaining points. gother. Industrial plants and .-Router.

[railway lines suffered damage

that also was true. What was: false was that the damage to them was slight.

INTER-ALLIED CONFERENCE

IN LONDON

The whole truth was that in- dustries, railways and houses all shared in the great destruction, for when factories were hit, hou- res suffered also. The destruc- tion of their homes could not be concealed from the German peo- ple; so much therefore the Nazis were forced to admit.

In recent attacks on Hamburg over 5,000 houses are reliably_re- ported to have been destroyed or damaged. Devas.ation

on such a scale is quite impos-

THE MAIN ITEMS for debate at the seriously forthcoming inter-Allied` conference in Lon-sible to conceal, and the German don will, says Reuter's diplomatic correspon-the fact and make the best use of dent, probably be:-

propagandists have had to face

it they can.

But there is other

destruction

were

(1) the Atlantic Charter, signed by Mr. which they do not and dare not flercest battles had been fought in Churchill and President Roosevelt.

In No Man's Land, one of the

wide lelds of over-ripe flax and rye still uncut. I got to a vil-

(2) Plans for post-war reconstruction in

lage which had been the centre of all the allied countries. this battle. Nothing was left of it but at few burned stumps.

Labyrinth Of Trenches

"A large number of inhabitants, trapped by the sudden arrival of the Germans, were formed into "Called Ushakovo. it stands on forced labour gangs and sent to an advantageous height over the German rear, and

nobody looking a semi-circle of woods a knows what has happened to couple of miles distant which was thêm, though some escaped into held by the Russians. The Ger- the woods or managed to reach mans made this village their the Russian lines, while others stronghold, but it was the Rus- are still

trickling back, though sians who advanced, stop there is nowhere in town left for step, digging themselves as them to live in.

advanced during several weeks from thrée directions until the Germans were finally forced to withdraw.

Burning Inferno

by

they

"When the Germans decided to "Allotments round and through labyrinth of evacuate the town on the night Ushakovo were a

of September 4, they ordered the German trenches. Some 500 yards!

admit. For example, hits scored on the Blohm and Voss shipbuilding yards in Hamburg, the yards in which many of Germany's submarines are built.

More recently, on the June, 25 they admitted that "British Mr. Churchill will be the prin- an international problem with 'planes dropped HE. and Incen- cipal British representative. Rus-mutual cooperation instead of diary bombs in Western and NW. sia will be represented for the leaving each country to act as it Germany," adding "the and her delegate is expected to be first time at these conferences finds ilselt possible. Reuter the Soviet Ambassador, M. Mai- sky.

All the Allied countries will

V

naturally subscribe to the aims of ON MURDER

the Atlantic Charter.

It is thought that postwar plans will be discussed for a switchover from "war to 'peaće, time production, including the, collection and storage of raw

© materials and their distribution: where the 'need ils' greatest an the countries concerned.

CHARGE

AT 18

The idea, it is assumed, is that An eighteen-year- old

civillan population suffered some losses in dead and injured but there was no damage to military or im- portant war objects." The use of the word "important" is signifi- cant! The German admission fol- lowed the British announcement of heavy attacks on objectives' at Cologne, Dusseldorf and the naval base at Kiel.

GREEK

remaining few hundred inhabit distant, were lings-rapidly con- reconstruction shall be tackled as cinema operator, Leslie PREMIER'S

by

night-of Russian

ants, mostly old people and child-structed ren, to assemble inside a church trenches and in between these which they locked up. Before were indentations where the ad- leaving the town, the Germans vancing Russian soldiers ducked systematically set fire to every when approaching the German house which had so far escaped lines. tiestruction, and it was into this burning inferno that Russian troops re-entered.

་ ;

"The terrain accupied by the funar Germans was : like Sa landscape with shelf cratero proving the 'acouracy of Rus- sian artillery.

Mournful Scene

pers,tin "háts and even slettors,

́a1 German armoured car"and the

· carcase-of- abhorbo, " "A couple of miles north was a Germán observation post--a quar- ry sliced into the side of a hillock With well-made galleries and dug- outs furnished with furniture, stolen from the villages. - Above this were the German artillery positions.

Walter Hammond of

Buckland-avenue, Dover, MESSAGE

German equipment and newspa was charged with the

IN A MESSAGE TO THE "still legible despite the rain, murder of George Thomas BRITISH PEOPLE ON THE OC- There was also the wreckage of Roberts, 50, manager of CASION OF HIS ARRIVAL WITH KING GEORGE OF the Plaza Cinema, Dover. GREECE IN BRITAIN, THE Hammond is employed at the GREEK PRIME MINISTER, M. cinema.

TSOUDEROS, SAID: “WE ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY TO FIND AMONG "Before the arrest was made OURSELVES HERE known Hammond was Inter- THE BRITISH PEOPLE... viewed by Detective-Superin. "We intend to carry on to the tendent Rawlings, of: Scotland very end this struggle at the side -Yard «in a` first floor room at of the British against the Nazis

the police station)"

and Fascist tyrants of Europe. Heavy black curtains word "We are going to build up our drawn noroas one of the win resources to continue this fight: up.

down throughout the Interview until the victory of which I am of nothing but burnt out houses Around this mournful scene, un-

to conceal those Thalde from confidant. It is impossible to with the sity showing through all cut rye fields and potato patches

passers-by.s

say how long we shall stay here. the windows --like skulls instead grown by peasants in the now; This position was clearly, has- Mr. Roberts, who had been We are tremendously proud to of faces,

non-existent village were whipped tily abandoned when the bottle-manager only four months, was come to London, capital of not "After wading through deep by the autumn vain,...

megk further west threatened to found dead in a cellar under the only the British Empire but of all.

Leinema.

| freedom loving peoples. "at"fast' feadhod än Army The ground was fittered with close in altogether-Rauter.

"I travelled to-day along the road where the Germans' ré- treated before abandoning Yelnya.. 4 started in the morn- Ang from Dörogobuzh which had never been. In German hands,

"The fierceness of the battle was but which was almost, com shown by the large mound fenced pletely dectroyed by terror off and decorated with fir branches ́ralds during the month of July, and wild flowers where hundreds "It was uncanny, driving in of Russian soldiers were buried. the darkness, through an un “German bodies filled numerous known town with the silhouettes shell-holes now .covered

It was a stronghold protected <by a stream, and the pânstruos tion of it as well as the equip÷ ment, left behind left the im- prozaion of great thoroughness. and efficiency.

Reutor.