Nazi Noose Tightens About Leningrad

[Globalization41]

Berlin, Special Cable to The New York
Times, By C. Brooks Peters, Thursday,
September 18, 1941: In both the Southern
Ukraine and around beleaguered Leningrad the
Germans claimed continued successes today.
These claims, however, were couched in
general terms in the High Command's
communique. Other Berlin sources of military
information have become silent in the last 24
hours, suggesting that another period of
reticence relative to the course of operations
has been ordered. ... In the Ukraine, the
Germans say, their push east of the Dnieper
River continues without the Russians being able
to halt or slow it. Further details are lacking,
however. From various unspecified sectors of
this theatre there are reports of the capture of
thousands of Russians and quantities of
materiel. ... The High Command has revealed
nothing about the 300,000 Russians reported
trapped in a pocket about Kiev. The official
news agency, D.N.B., merely reports air raids
on Odessa, on Russian columns, and on
positions east of the Dnieper and harbors on
the Sea of Azov. ... The situation in the
central sector continues to be the least
clarified. Intermittent German and Russian
attacks continue, with the Germans claiming
successive small victories and territorial gains.
... The German Air Force is credited with
sinking three Russian transports totaling 3,000
tons and badly damaging 16 others in raids on
Crimea, the island of Oesel in the Baltic, Lake
Ladoga, and the mouth of the Volkhov River.
In addition, a 1,000-ton vessel is said to have
been sunk in the Black Sea. A soldier
correspondent also describes a dive-bomber
attack on a Russian battleship of the Marat
class [23,000 tons], in which three direct hits
were claimed. ... Powerful land forces,
assisted by bombers, continue to hammer at
Leningrad. The High Command reports great
success in combating the line of fortifications
about the city. Parts of one infantry division
alone are reported to have stormed and taken
119 Soviet bunkers. ... Soldier correspondents'
reports from this sector indicate, however, that
the Russians engage in frequent counter-attacks
against the German positions. These Soviet
operations appear to be buttressed with both
tanks and planes. The Germans declare the
noose about Leningrad continues to tighten,
but they do not expect the city to fall in the
immediate future. ... A soldier correspondent
writes of standing on a hill less than 20 miles
from Leningrad and seeing smoke pouring
from the factories of the northern metropolis,
and of observing the steeple of a cathedral and
Kotlin Island, on which the Soviet naval base
and fortress of Kronstadt are situated. ...
These front-line reports indicate that the
Germans' progress is slow and that the Russian
resistance tenacious. Extensive land-mine
fields laid by the Russians appear to offer a
serious obstacle to the rapid movement of
motorized units.

[In 1934 the Soviets held a big pow wow
celebrating the successful government take-
over of agriculture (which resulted in millions
of famine deaths). Kirov, No. 2 behind Stalin,
emerged as the communist party favorite. The
ego-sensitive Stalin, still officially No. 1, threw
a silent temper tantrum and, later in the year,
(allegedly) engineered the killing of Kirov, the
murder taking place near Kirov's office in
Leningrad. In Stalin's mind, anyone not
favoring Stalin as No. 1 was a masked,
conspiratorial enemy of the Soviet state. Using
the Kirov killing as a pretext, Stalin began
ordering the arrest of his suspected and
potential political enemies, accusing them of
being involved in the conspiracy to assassinate
Kirov. These "enemies of the Soviet Union"
were usually either shot or sent to slave/death
camps after forced confessions. The ruthless
purge operation peaked in 1937/38 as the most
talented Soviet citizens were finally liquidated.
But many surviving Leningraders, experienced
in underground opposition, suspected Stalin as
the perpetrator of Kirov's killing and the
resulting purge. Catchy jingles were whispered
throughout Leningrad depicting Stalin's
involvement. Consequently Stalin considered
Leningrad a hotbed of anti-Stalinists.
Meanwhile, in 1941, as the German blitzkrieg
fanned out, Hitler ordered his forces to
surround Leningrad and wipe it out from a
standoff position so as to save German
casualties and supplies while Stalin ordered the
population to fight to the death. Thus, the ever
forward-looking Stalin completed two
objectives: 1. Nazi forces, needed elsewhere,
were tied down. 2. The anti-Stalin nest in
Leningrad was further reduced.]

Washington, Special to The New York Times,
By Turner Catledge, Thursday, September 18,
1941: President Roosevelt today asked
Congress for an appropriation of six-billion
dollars with which to finance aid to the non-
Axis allies under the lend-lease program
through June 30, 1943. ... The request was
submitted in a letter to Speaker Rayburn of the
House and set forth that out of the original
seven-billion dollars appropriated six months
ago, aid in the amount of 6.3-billion dollars "is
now moving through the successive stages of
allocation, obligation, production, and
delivery." He said that additional funds were
needed in order to avoid any interruption in the
flow of aid "to those countries whose defense
is vital to our own." ... The President attached
to the letter a copy of a bill, prepared by
Harold D. Smith, Director of the Budget,
containing a breakdown of the proposed
expenditures. Under the terms of the proposed
authorization, which are largely repetitious of
those already on the statute books, the
President would have power to provide lease-
lend assistance for Soviet Russia.

Ottawa, Ontario, Special to The New York
Times, Thursday, September 18, 1941: The
government announces the loss, "through
enemy action," of 1,546 bags of mail that left
Canada for England during the last week in
August.

Shanghai, United Press, The New York Times,
Friday, September 19, 1941: [Thursday, U.S.
time] At least eight persons were killed and
more than 85 wounded in widespread terrorist
attacks Wednesday, on the eve of the tenth
anniversary of the so-called Mukden Incident
that was the beginning of the Japanese
occupation of Manchuria, the Japanese Domei
News Agency reported today. ... The most
serious of the incidents was at Nanking, capital
of the Japanese-sponsored "national
government of China," where eight were killed
and 35 injured when a time bomb exploded in
the grounds of the railway station. In South China,
Domei said, a series of bombs exploded in
Canton wounding 50 or more Chinese and two
Japanese. ... A reliable foreign traveler who
reached here yesterday from Peiping, by way
of the Tientsin-Pukow (Nanking) Railway, said
that six persons were killed and many wounded
in the Nanking explosion. The Japanese threw
up a cordon around the station immediately after
the incident, the informant said, and stopped all
traffic on the streets of Nanking and Pukow,
across the Yangtse River. ... The movement
of Chinese was prohibited for hours but foreign
travelers were ferried across the Yangtse from
Pukow to Nanking after a four-hour delay and
permitted to go from the ferry station to a
hotel. ... Freedom of movement in the streets
was restored yesterday morning.

London, Special Cable to The New York
Times, Thursday, Sept. 18, 1941: Britain has
put out a suggestion that Vatican City, instead
of being blacked out, be brightly lighted, so
that, in the event of Royal Air Force raids on
Rome, the British fliers would not shower
bombs on the lighted area, it was said in
authoritative circles here today. ... However,
Premier Mussolini is reported to have turned
thumbs down on the proposal on the ground
that Vatican lights would only serve as beacons
to guide possible R.A.F. raiders to Rome.

Washington, Special to The New York Times,
Thursday, September 18, 1941: The Army's
strength, as reported today in the weekly
summation of forces, is 1,597,810, of whom
110,810 are officers. The commissioned
personnel includes 15,010 regulars, 21,800
commissioned members of the National Guard,
and 74,000 reservists on active duty. ... ...
The New York Times, Thur., Sept. 18, 1941:
Regular Soviet troops already in the field
against the Nazis are estimated at nine million
and, the British have said, Moscow also has
four million more trained, equipped, and ready
to go into action at any time. [Stalin could
easily afford to order human-wave attacks.]
Moscow, Associated Press, The New York
Times, Friday, September 19, 1941: [Late
Thursday, U.S. time] German forces have
reached the gates of Kiev, a Soviet Information
Bureau communique reported early today. ...
Fighting continued along the entire front, the
communique said.

Torrance, California, Associated Press, The
New York Times, Friday, September 19, 1941:
Lou Zamperini, former Southern California
mile ace, has been ordered to report for
induction into the Army September 29. He
holds the N.C.A.A. mile record of 4:08.3.

Tokyo, Wireless to The New York Times, By
Otto D. Tolischus, Fri., Sept. 19, 1941: [Thur.,
U.S. time] Celebrating the tenth anniversary of
the "Manchurian incident," which led to the
creation of Manchukuo and to the present
China war, Japan's military spokesman and the
press yesterday hailed the shots fired at
Liutiaokow at 10 P.M., September 18, 1931,
as a double signal that started off "the racial
war for the emancipation of the Orient from
the clutches of the whites" and a world-wide
movement for the creation of a new order
"culminating in a second world war." ... And
although the outcome of this war has become
doubtful enough to prompt Japan's statesmen to
seek readjustment of relations with the United
States, the Japanese military still predict a
German victory and therewith a "new order" in
Europe and exhort the Japanese people to
march forward in the construction of their new
order in East Asia. ... The anniversary,
observed jointly with Manchukuo, was marked
by banquets, speeches, broadcasts, official
visits to Shinto shrines, and a one-minute
standing silent tribute to the war dead, in
which the entire Japanese nation participated at
8:20 last night. ... Broadcasting to the nation
immediately afterward from a banquet at the
Imperial Hotel, which was attended by Prince
Nobuhito Takamatsu, a number of Cabinet
members, and Axis diplomats, War Minister
Lieut. Gen. Eiki Tojo declared: "The
Manchurian incident was a heaven-sent tocsin
signaling at home and abroad the epoch-making
dawn of East Asia. Before the Manchurian
incident our public opinion was divided,
suffering from domestic trouble and the foreign
evil, and the successive armament limitation
conferences under the beautiful name of so-
called liberalism and national self-determination
merely increased foreign contempt for Japan."
... "But with the extension of the incident the
Japanese people rose to the occasion in the
loyal and courageous Yamato spirit and,
becoming united under the august virtue of His
Majesty, marched forward toward the disposal
of the incident on the basis of justice." ...
"Because the League of Nations was incapable
of appreciating the motive that compelled our
country to move into Manchuria, we withdrew
from this organization, while the 30-million
people of Manchuria elected to establish the
present Manchukuo." ... After asserting that
"both Manchukuo and China are pioneering in
this task [of constructing a Greater East Asia
co-prosperity sphere], together with Japan,
which for the safety of all East Asia advanced
her imperial forces into French Indo-China,"
the War Minister continued: "Nevertheless, as
a result of measures by third powers, the
nation must recognize that there might be an
expansion of the crisis. But it is in the
Japanese character to break oppression by any
means. We would fight elements hostile to our
country to the last ditch. On the other hand,
we are ready to cooperate with forces
upholding the principle of justice." ... Foreign
Minister Teijiro Toyoda congratulated
Manchukuo on its progress. ... Major
Tominaga of the Press Bureau of the War
Ministry said in a press article: "Should any
power go the extent of forcing the Dutch East
Indies to refuse Japan's legitimate demands and
to stop sending materials having a grave
bearing on Japan's life-and-death problems, it
will be time for us Japanese to show them the
folly of their manoeuvres. The glorious
tradition and mission of the Yamato people do
not permit their country to remain under such
regional and economic oppression. A resolute
step forward is the only way for us to
safeguard our honored history." ... He added
that Japan had never devoted the whole of her
armed strength in fighting China, which was
the reason the Japanese had not advanced
farther. He said Japanese airplane production
had increased ten times over the level of four
years ago and munitions production capacity 50
times, and he told this nation that despite the
virtual stoppage of Japan's foreign trade, "both
the army and navy have sufficient raw
materials to cope with any serious threat on
any front or several fronts at once." ... An
officer of the army section of Imperial
Headquarters predicted a German victory over
Russia, after which, he said, Germany will turn
against Britain and Suez. The bureau for
commemoration of the Axis alliance treaty
announced elaborate plans to celebrate the first
anniversary of that treaty on September 27,
when pamphlets extolling it and phonograph
records with the "Song of the Tripartite Pact"
are to be distributed to schools and various
public and private organizations throughout the
country. ... Rejuvenation of the naval high
command continued with the promotion of Vice
Admiral Soetake Toyoda to a full admiral with
his appointment as Commander in Chief of the
Kure naval station.

The New York Times, Sept. 18, 1941: New
infantile paralysis cases [virus infection of
spinal grey matter causing muscle paralysis,
atrophy, and/or deformities] reported in New
York [City] Thursday numbered 12, according
to Health Department officials. The total for
this week is 40. Since Jan. 1, there have been
238 cases and five deaths, contrasted with only
37 cases at this time last year. The
"expectancy" based on the last 25 years'
experience, however is 110 cases.

Teheran, Iran, Associated Press, The New
York Times, Thursday, September 18, 1941:
Iran's new Shah has decided to cede all the
possessions of his fabulously rich father as a
gift to the nation, the government announced
today. The new ruler, European-educated
Mohammed Shah Pahlevi, also has prepared a
general amnesty decree for all political
prisoners of the regime of his abdicated father,
it was announced. The former Shah was
reputedly one of the richest men in Asia when
he gave up his throne this week. Seizure of
his property was actually decided upon at a
secret parliamentary meeting prior to the
session yesterday at which the new Shah took
the oath and promised to rule as a
constitutional monarch. ... The former Shah's
account of 27,000,000 tomans in the national
bank was immediately attached to pay
government salaries. The new government's
program to reduce unnecessary taxation, trim
the budget, and abolish corrupt sale of State
property to private individuals was approved.
... The British Legation said it had received
authority from London to recognize the new
Shah. Moscow's attitude was not immediately
clear. ... During the day the British and
Russians went on with the task of clearing
suspected Axis intriguers out of Iran. More
than 100 German internees were headed for
India and then Australia. Tonight the Russians
planned to send 30 more Germans to Siberia.
Members of the Italian Legation departed today
for Baghdad, en route home. [Shah Pahlevi
turned out to be an evil dictator lacking in
leadership ability and supported by U.S.
foreign policy with an eye on Iran's strategic
oil. But Iran's citizens later overthrew the
Shah and democratically installed a regime
based on religious interpretations.]

[Stay tuned for late breaking war bulletins.
... Globalization41.]