STILL NO SIGN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 218, 25 June 1943, Page 3

STILL NO SIGN

GERMAN MOVE IN RUSSIA. OREL BULGE FIGHTINC. FLARE-UP IS REPORTED. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, June 24. With the drawing to a close of the week in which experts have expressed the opinion that the Germans, if they mean business in Russia in 1943, must get started* there is still no signs of the Germans risking getting their troops involved in a full-scale engagement. The only land movement of any significance is a flare-up in the lighting around Mtsensk and Sevslc, northwards and southwards of the Orel bulge. The Russians north-west, of Mtsensk broke into the German lines and captured material. Red Army gunners in the Sevsk region smashed a, German battalion headquarters and destroyed an enemy-held railway bridge. , . , The Berlin radio to-night admitted, that the Red Army south of Velikvo Luki had broken into the main German defence lines. “The enemy was able to force a break-through, but a counter-attack sealed of! the*breach,” said tho radio.

The Red Army has been filling in the three months’ lull in concentrating on a new typo of defence to hold any attempted German break-through. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians have devised special tank traps intended to cripple tho Germans’ much-vaunted new Tiger type.

LULL IN GROUND FIGHTING. LONDON, June 24. There is still patrol activity on several sectors of the Russian front, but generally there is a complete lull along the entire front. Soviet long-range bombers on Tuesday night raided enemy aerodromes, according to an official statement broadcast by the Moscow radio. A considerable number of German aeroplanes were destroyed or damaged on the ground. The railway junction of Pskov, on the Soviet-Estonian' border, was subjected to a severe and shattering bombardment. The whole area of the junction was ringed with flame. Stores of ammunition and fuel’, as well as many trains, wore sot on fire. The fires were accompanied by a big explosion. Two Soviet aeroplanes did not return.

“The British and American attacks on western Germany have considerably assisted in imposing a stalemate on the German Army on the Russian front,” says the Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Herald.” '“This impression was gathered from a conversation with Colonel Ivaroliey, of .. the. Soviet Air Force. Colonel Karoliev said that the bombing of industrial centres had considerably (affected Germany’s aeroplane output and also led to the withdrawal of many fighters for the protection of factory areas. So many fighters had been removed for this purpose that it was doubtful whether the Luftwaffe now had sufficient fighters in Russia to cover a major offensive.” A Moscow announcement says that on the central front a Soviet reconnaissance detachment obtained valuable information about enemy defences. Soviet reconnaissance groups wore also active on other parts of tho front.

Moscow also announces that a paifisan detachment, in an operation in the Kursk province, fought stubborn battles for several days against a German punitive expedition. The partisans inflicted heavy losses and forced the Germans to retreat! Soviet ships in the Black Sea have sunk two enemy motor landing barges.