SOVIET SUCCESSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1942, Page 7

SOVIET SUCCESSES

Large Russian Tank Forces Landed In Crimea Sector (U.P.A. and British Official Wircle?s.—Rcc. noon.) LONDON, April 14. Marshal Timoshenko's forces below Byclt;orod have made a deep breach in the German lino northwards of Kharkov, according to reports from Stockholm. The Russian forward troops swept through the breach and reached points near Rjepki, two miles south-west of Kharkov, on the loop railway linking Kharkov and Vick. Russian procure is reported to be particularly strong north-east of Byelgorod, where Red Army motorised forces are making efforts to advance in the direction of Tamarovaka to cross the Donetz River near its source. Large Russian tank forces have arrived on the Kerch Peninsula, in the Crimea. The Berlin radio says mud and slush have made important operations on most sectors of the eastern front impossible. The latest reports from the Russian front say that in a sector of the Kalinin front Russian troops have dislodged the enemy from one strongly-fortified locality. The enemy left on the approaches of the locality and in the streets over 900 dead officers and men. The Russians destroyed two tanks, eis?ht guns n machine-guns, one mortar battery and eight blockhouses with machine-guns. In a sector of the central front a Soviet unit wiped out more than 200 German officers. Though the thaw which apparently has fully arrived on the south of the Russian front and which will spread northwards to the snow around Leningrad will create most difficult campaigning conditions, there appears to be no lightening of the Soviet pressure. . vp^( l t e Manchester Guardian says, though all her winter hopes have not been realised, Russia is confident this spring. The paper "kJ' V Le . n,n^rad ha f not been relieved, nor has the German hedgehog system in the central area been broken. Russia, though confident, does not underrate the coming German offensive" However the Germans are still on the defensive, and the losses being inflicted on them are still heavy—some idea of how heavy was g.ven last night in a special announcement broadcast by Moscow, relating to the successes on the Leningrad front where, alone, m ten days, over 9000 Germans were killed