AIR SUPERIORITY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 162, 22 April 1942, Page 3

AIR SUPERIORITY

RUSSIAN TOLL AT MURMANSK. FIFTEEN RAIDERS DOWNED. BOOTY IN CENTRAL SECTOR. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright). (Rec. 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, April 21. Striking evidence of Russian superiority in the air is given in a Kuibyshev message describing a German attempt to make a mass raid on Murmansk. The Russians brought clown 15 raiding planes and damaged 12 more. Of 50 planes which took part only one managed to break through and drop bombs. There was no damage to military objectives. Several Russian planes were damaged but none were brought down. A supplementary communique states: “On one sector of the central front our troops occupied an important key defence position. The enemy threw reserves into the battle. During the last two days 1300 German troops have been killed in this sector. We captured booty including 19 guns, 99 machine-guns, SO,OOO rounds- of ammunition and a great number of rifles.” —British Official Wireless. ACTIVITY ROUND LENINGRAD. THE INITIATIVE DIVIDED.

HARD FIGHTING IN MUD. LONDON, April 21. The sole part of the Russian front where appreciable territorial progress by either side appears still possible in the very near future is the Finnish eastern stretch between the Murmansk area and the river Svir, reports the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times.” In the meantime, the only part of this front where serious obstacles are reported is the southern end between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. It is quite obvious that the Russian objective is the recapture of that part of the Murmansk, railway and the stretch of the Leningrad-White Sea canal between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, but it is doubtful whether -this can be achieved before the swampy territory becomes soft. Great activity continues round Leningrad’s approaches, with the initiative divided between the Russians and the Germans. Each side has been able to inflict heavy casualties and keep its adversary busy, but no decisive progress can be expected either way nntill the middle of May, when the mud hardens. This is largely true about the whole front to the Black Sea, though hard fighting in mud continues at many places. The Germans have been attacking heavily in the last few days in the Lake Ilmen sector. Presumably they are still bent on relieving the remnants of the encircled 16th Army. No changes have been reported, but casualties have been heavy on both sides. On the Crimean front, Soviet fighters made a head-on attack on a German bomber formation, shooting down eight out of 18 planes. The Berlin radio claims that coastal batteries repulsed further Russian attempts to land at Theodosia.

The latest Russian communique speaks of harassing operations against enemy outposts and strongholds on the Smolensk front. In the Leningrad area several more inhabited places have been taken and German counter-at-tacks have been broken up. An earlier Russian communique said that 31 German planes were destroyed on April 19 for the loss of 13 Russian machines. Between April 5 and 11 the Germans lost 112 planes and the Russians 33.