The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, has been taken completely by surprise

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German forces have invaded the Soviet Union.

In a pre-dawn offensive, German troops pushed into the USSR from the south and west, with a third force making their way from the north towards Leningrad.

At 0500 GMT, an hour after the invasion began, the Nazi Minister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, went on national radio to read aproclamationby Adolf Hitler promising that the mobilisation of the German army would be the "greatest the world has ever seen".

"He was in a complete state of shock and walked without reason on streets and through woods."

People's War memories

The invasion breaks the non-aggression pact signed by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.

The pact has since been described by the German leader, Adolf Hitler, as a stain on Germany's record.

Initial reports suggest that the German troops have made rapid progress.

A correspondent with the German Army on the northern front reported the Soviet Army opened fire immediately at the German advance, but German soldiers overran the first of the Soviet positions and within a few minutes had captured the frontier posts.

Germany is thought to have committed a massive force of more than three million men, supported by more than 3,000 tanks, 7,000 guns and nearly 3,000 aircraft.

They are nonetheless vastly outnumbered by the Red Army which has about nine million men under arms with another 500,000 in reserve.

Soviet arms and ability, however, are considered vastly inferior to the Germans.

The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, appears to have been taken completely by surprise.

Despite warnings from Britain and secret intelligence reports that war was imminent, Stalin has refused to prepare for an invasion, insisting that it would not happen until next summer.

In London the War Cabinet met early this morning to discuss the implications.

The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, condemned the invasion in a broadcast on BBC radio, in which he said it marked a turning point in the war.

Calling Hitler a "bloodthirstyguttersnipe", he said his own outspoken opposition to communism had "faded away" in the light of today's events, and pledged Britain's help for the Soviet Union in any way possible.

"The Russian danger is... our danger," he said, "and the danger of the United States, just as the cause of any Russian fighting for his hearth and home is the cause of free men and free peoples in every quarter of the globe."

Mr Thorpe always said he was innocent

Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe has walked out of the Old Bailey a free man, after a jury cleared him of the attempted murder of Norman Scott.

Mr Thorpe, who resigned as leader in 1976 amid allegations that he had had a homosexual affair with Mr Scott, hailed his acquittal as "a complete vindication".

Mr Thorpe and three other men were charged with conspiracy to murder, after the bungled assassination attempt of Mr Scott on a deserted moor in Southern England.

All were found not guilty. It took the jury 15 hours of deliberation spread over three days to reach its verdict. Mr Thorpe was also acquitted on a charge of inciting one of his co-defendants, David Holmes, to murder Mr Scott.

"I have always maintained that I was innocent." Jeremy Thorpe said.

The trial lasted 31 days but Mr Thorpe's ordeal began when he was charged last August.

Although he was found not guilty, the case has probably ruined Mr Thorpe's political career.

As the verdict was read out he sat motionless. Afterwards he leant over to give his wife a long kiss.

Speaking later he said: "I have always maintained that I was innocent of the charges brought against me and the verdict of the jury, after a prolonged and careful investigation by them, I regard as totally fair and a complete vindication."

He added that he would be taking "a short period of rest" away from the glare of publicity.

proclamation:the formal act of proclaiming; giving public notice（宣布）

bloodthirsty:cruel;having a bloodlust（残忍的；嗜杀的）