BATTLE FOR LENINGRAD 2

German infantry are here seen passing at the double through a blazing Russian village which has been "scorched" by the inhabitants. Scenes such as this were common on all parts of the Russian front during the German advance.


BATTLE FOR LENINGRAD

Throughout September the battle for Leningrad continued with undiminished violence, but despite the fact that the Germans, in accordance with Hitler's orders to take the city at all costs, threw masses of men into the line regardless of loss, they were unable to break through the strong Russian defenses. Early in October, Russian counter-attacks, south, east and west of the city forced the Nazis on the defensive, while in the Karelian Isthmus, where the Finns were threatening the city, severe casualties were inflicted. Above, a town on the Karelian Isthmus after an attack by Russian bombers




RUSSIANS LOSE TWO MORE TOWNS
After the fall of Mariupol on October 14, the German forces in the Ukraine, assisted by Slovak and Hungarian divisions, continued their advance, and on the 20th captured the important armaments centre of Stalino. Farther south, mechanized divisions pushing along the coast of the Sea of Azov, made progress towards the important port and communications centre of Rostov-on-Don, beyond which lay the valuable Caucasus oilfields. On the 22nd they captured Taganrog, between Mariupol and Rostov, after many days' fierce fighting which cost them 35,000 casualties, as well as large numbers of armored vehicles, stores, and military equipment. The picture shows German troops entering Stalino; the chimneys in the background are those of a steel factory rendered useless by the Russians



FALL OF KHARKOV
OCTOBER 25-29, 1941





At dawn on November 18, Imperial forces under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Alan Cunningham, with strong air support, crossed the Egyptian frontier into Cyrenaica on a broad front from the coast east of Sollum to as far south as Jarabub. The object of this attack was to engage and destroy German and Italian forces who were massing on the frontier and constituting a threat to Egypt, and to regain if possible the territory which had been lost during General Rommel's advance of the previous spring. For some months before the attack was launched the British forces had been steadily reinforced with men, tanks and aircraft, many of the tanks being of American manufacture. These forces had been skillfully dispersed, and camouflage had been used to such good effect that when the advance began very little opposition was encountered either from the air or from ground forces. Pressure was rapidly exerted on Axis forces holding positions from Helafaya to Sidi Omar where British armored formations, with New Zealand, South African and Indian troops in support crossed the frontier and penetrated some fifty miles into enemy territory. The R.A.F., and the Australian and South African Air Forces, gave strong support to the troops on the ground, and during the day destroyed between them eighteen Axis aircraft besides bombing enemy transport on the Benina road, near Benghazi. The picture shows a line of British tanks moving out to attack the enemy.
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The tank battle around Sidi Rezegh continued until November 28, when there was a pause. During this time General Rommel had been trying, without success, to break through the British ring and effect a junction with his troops to the west. Sidi Rezegh itself changed hands several times. Meanwhile New Zealand infantry pushing westwards along the coast occupied Bardia on the 22nd and Gambut on the 23rd, and on the 27th succeeded in linking up at El Duda with a force that had sallied out from Tobruk. During the next few days these troops gradually widened their corridor of contact, but on the 29th the Sidi Rezegh battle flared up once more. After several unsuccessful attempts to break through to the west, Rommel concentrated all his available tanks on a narrow front and on December 1 succeeded in hammering his way through the Tobruk corridor by sheer weight of armor. The R.A.F. and R.A.A.F. played a prominent part in these operations, bombing enemy communications and harassing his ground forces with machine gun and cannon fire. The fighter pilots in the above picture are members of an Australian Squadron using American-built planes. They are on their way to take the air



Although the Germans succeeded in encircling Leningrad, their efforts to take it by storm failed. Nevertheless, during October and November, they pushed slowly eastwards and on November 29 captured Tikhvin, 100 miles south-east of the city. On December 8, however, Russian forces under General Merezhkov re-entered the town after a battle in which more than 7,000 Germans were killed and much valuable war material was captured intact. The pictures show: above, German horse and mechanized units in retreat; below, Russian infantry following up a tank attack.

RUSSIANS RECAPTURE MOJAISK

Although the Russians had succeeded in driving the Germans out of Klin, Kalinin and Kaluga, thereby removing the pincer threat to Moscow from the north and south, the enemy forces in Mojaisk, in the centre, fought desperately to retain this important position which they had won at great cost on December 6. On January l5, the Russians launched their assault on the town and after bitter street fighting in which the Germans defended themselves house by house, the Nazis were forced to retreat and the town which Hitler had ordered his troops to hold at all costs was recaptured.

Russians encircle German 16th army at Staraya Russia
February 24, 1942 On February 23, the twenty-fourth anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, Russian forces launched an offensive on the Central Front and on the same day the High Command announced the capture of Dorogobuzh, fifty miles east of Smolensk. Farther north, where the Russians were striving desperately to break the German ring around Leningrad, Soviet troops, on the 24th, successfully accomplished the encirclement of the German 16th Army at Staraya Russa, ten miles south of Lake Ilmen. After the refusal of the German commander to surrender, the Russians began an attack in which two German infantry divisions and the crack S.S. "Death's Head" Division were smashed and 12,000 Germans were killed. Nevertheless, the enemy, heartened by promises of airborne reinforcements, clung desperately to their positions. The pictures show: first, German infantry waiting in the snow beside their guns in readiness for an attack; and second, Russian sappers clearing a passage through enemy wire.
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