TAKING HUGE TOIL OF ENEMY DIVISIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 171, 22 July 1942, Page 5

TAKING HUGE TOIL OF ENEMY DIVISIONS

TANKS AND TROOPS

Air Armadas In Big Battles

U.P.A. and British Wireless. Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, July 21. Russian and also many neutral the huge losses Tu! ?r ' n^ct , e( l on the Germane in the Voronezh sector. One estimate Places the German losses here at between 3000 and 4000 daily. The Moscow radio says the Germans are also suffering huge losses . arc * Millerovo, including 3000 in two days in attempting to break through the Russian defences. Russian artillery at this point has accounted for 82 tanks. Artillery in another sector has destroyed 42 tanks. The German radio to-night admitted that Germans were compelled a few days ago to retreat from several forward positions in the Voronezh sector, hut claimed that a counterattack had largely restored the position. The radio said hundreds of Russian tanks were employed in this area, and both sides were flinging in tremendous air armadas. According to a Moscow report the Red Air Force, between July 12 and 18. smashed 470 tanks and 20 infantry battalions, one cavalry squadron and 1410 troop supply lorries In the same period. Also 211 German planes were destroyed. A recent heavy Russian raid on the rear of the Germans on the Brvansk front damaged a railway at 47 places and suspended traffic for two days. Russians Cross River The operations at Voronezh are thus officially described: "Soviet troops continued to deal the enemy heavy blows, inflicting heavy losses. All the enemy attempts to hold their favourable positions on the eastern bank of the Don have failed, and a tank battle of vftry great intensity has occurred between the two rivers, where our men drove a wedge into the enemy positions. A fierce engagement took place in the enemy rear, which grew in intensity on Monday. In one sector south of Voronezh a Soviet unit during the night crossed the river by swimming. The operation was successfully carried out. As a result, the Germans, fearing they would be cut off from their main forces, fled from the„easterr. bank." The Moscow newspaper Pravda says that in an attempt to restore the positions north-westward and southward of Voronezh, Germans are making desperate but futile counter attacks at enormous cost in men and material. The Red Army north-west-ward of Voronezh has already widened the breach and endangered further enemy strategic positions and has secured operational freedom. The Russian advance Has been so swift that the Germans have had no time to dig in, and have been unable to withstand the Russian bayonet charges. The Germans are now believea to be concentrating their main tank and panzer formations southward of Voronezh. Donetz Mines in Ruins Pravda, the Moscow journal, says the Russians left the Donetz basin coal mines in ruins in their retreat from Voroshilovgrad. The paper appeals to the Russians to collect peat to keep the electric power stations going, leaving the coal for the war industries. It adds: "In the districts where peat is not found people must

collect local fuel such as wood and make each part of the country inE£P dent °' transported coal." The Moscow radio reports that assassinated Baron von Bilderling, who recently arrived in German-occupied Luzharsky district in the Leningrad area and claimed the ownership of a State farm. It is stated from Helsinki that Russian bombers again raided Kotka which is now one of Finland's most important ports and is principally used for the disembarkation of Germans. It is one of the most heavily bombed towns in Finland.