LOSSES IN RUSSIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 122, 5 March 1942, Page 3

LOSSES IN RUSSIA

SIXTY GERMAN AEROPLANES.

OVER 200 IN fHREE DAYS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, March 4. The Germans have suffered more crippling losses in the air on the Eastern Front. The Russians last night announced the destruction of 60 mere German planes, bringing the total to rvell over 200 in three days. Some of the planes were lost in the desperate attempts which the Germans are making to supply the beleaguered 16th Army at Staraya Kussa. The aerodromes being used by German transport planes to assist the troops at staraya Russa are being increasingly threatened by Soviet land forces. Lase night’s Soviet communique stated: “During March our troops fought the enemy with tenacity, encircling and annihilating nests of resistance. On several sectors of the front, our troops continued their advance. On March 2, in aerial combats, eight enefny planes were shot down, while another .52’ wei'o destroyed on the ground. We lost 11 planes. Two thousand fGerma ns have been killed during the last two days on the Leningrad front. On the Kalinin front the enemy lost 1400 men killed.” Italians Heavily Defeated. The Russians are now only 30 miles from the Dnieper bend, according to the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegrfaph.’’ The Russians have reoccupied nine localities 30 miles east of Dnepropetrovsk, and continue to advance. Italians in this area were heavily defeated. The entire staff of one Italian divisional headquarters was either killed or taken prisoner. Marshal Zhukov’s shock troops in the Smolensk district, have reoccupied three fortified villages, including, it is believed, Korobetz, on the SmolenskSukhinichi railway. The Russians are reported again to have recaptured Theodosia, in the Crimea, and also an important town in the Rzliev district after a battle in which 1100 Germans were killed and much booty was captured.

According to the Moscow radio, the ring round the German army at Staraya Russa is tightening and the Gormans are being wiped out. The Stockholm , correspondent of “The Times” says that the optimism in Berlin at the week-end concerning the relief of the beleaguered army is markedly 'yielding to a less confident mood as it is realised that the Russians have managed to establish strong new positions against the beleaguered troops and the relieving troops from Estonia.

The Wilhelmstrasse considers that the. beleaguered troops do not lack ammunition, but they admit that the food position is serious because the Russians in the opening phase of the battle captured a number of well-stocked depots. German food deliveries bv air are insignificant compared with the amount required for 90,000 troops. There is good reason to believe that parts of the railway between the Dno and Sokolniki junctions, 180 miles and 217 miles south-west of Leningrad, have been captured or are under Russian fire.

The Wilhelmstrasse gives some idea of the extent to which parachutists havei been thrown in as infantry to stiffen the resistance round Leningrad, by stating that parachutists have defeated 12 Russian divisions in constant fighting since the end of January. The German use of parachutists indicates the importance which the High Command attaches to the Russian attempts to break out of Leningrad. The divei’sion of the parachutists must seriously diminish the limited supply of such specialists for use in the spring offensive. Day temperatures all along the front are rising. The spring thaw is not distant, hut night frosts in the next few weeks are expected to make the packed snow more negotiable for Russian sledge traffic. The Russians continue to capture villages on the Kalinin front. In the unsuccessful defence of two villages the Germans lost 1800 men. German Line.

Russian policy, brilliantly designed and brilliantly executed during recent months, has resulted in the formation of a front far different from the “winter line” which the German High Command planned and hoped to hold. The front no\y appears to run in a series of loops as a result of the operations of the last three months. The Germans have been holding on doggedly to certain bastions based on the larger towns while' the Russians have been thrusting mainly with cavalry and ski patrols across country in between. Such pivots of German resistance have been the areas round Schluesselburg, Lake Ilmen, Khzev, Mozhaisk, Orel, Kursk, Kharkov, Stalin, and Taganrog. One bastion, Mozhaisk, was captured by frontal and encircling attacks. Another, Staraya Russa, is surrounded and is being reduced. Rzhev is almost surrounded, and the others are more or less threatened as the Russians enlarge and deepen their thrusts. The policy of retaining these strong points has certainly prevented any large scale Russian drive toward Central Europe, but has not spared the permans great losses in men and setbacks in morale, both of which they desire to conserve for their renewed? spring campagin. Latterly, it appeal's that in order to hold up the Russian advance, the Germans have been compelled to cling to their bastions even after the danger of encirclement becomes critical. The deduction mav be drawn that they feared that any further retreats might cause the front to give way and jeopardise their main gains in the east.

The result, in any case, has been very heavy losses at Staraya Russa

and the prospect of further sacrifices there and in the central pocket about Vyazma. German strategy TlaS been exploited by the Russians, *vho ha.o been able to keep up their pressure, both against the bastions and in between. How far this strategy can be continued after the front has thawed and dried by the end of April is a subject of speculation. Jt is thought that the Russians will by then be well supplied with material and they should be better able to withstand the panzer divisions than last year, when they suffered from a treacherous surprise attack and were relatively unfamiliar with German tactics. The Moscow radio says that partisans operating far behind the German lines have succeeded in wiping out the whole garrison for an area comprising more than lb places and an. holding out against German attacks. An organised Home Guard, which received orders by radio from Moscow, is guarding the district and has sent a. collective telegram to M. Stalin promising not to content themselves with being free as a, district but to fight on to join hands one day wita the advancing Soviet forces.