LENINGRAD GAINS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 113, 15 May 1942, Page 5

LENINGRAD GAINS

SOVIET ATTACKING

Heavy Tell Of Nazi Planes

Reported

U.P.A. and British Wireless.

Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, May 14. On the Leningrad front on Tuesday Soviet troops occupied 10 enemy trenches and captured booty, including two tanks, seven armoured cars and four guns. On one sector of the north-western front the Russians, in fierce fighting, occupied two enemy sea defence positions, inflicting severe losses on the enemy in men and material. On another sector of the same front they destroyed 28 blockhouses and several machinegun nests.

A Moscow message speaks of a daring raid on an enemy aerodrome on the southern front by Soviet planes, which destroyed 19 and damaged 22 enemy planes. Enemy attempts to use transport planes on a large scale to relieve the encircled German Sixteenth Army in the north-west have been frustrated, as the Russians have brought down 229 in the course of several days. In addition, 37 fighters have been destroyed. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says confused German talk about a secret new weapon is undoubted nonsense and is possibly Inspired to encourage the drooping home front because, after five days, the clear fact emerges that no decisive gains have been obtained on the Kerch Peninsula.

Reports from Berlin to-day reflect a certain disappointment, the correspondent adds. They confirm the conviction that the German experimental heavy offensive was a flash in the pan, but it is certain that the attempt will, and must, be repeated, because the dislodging of the Russians is imperative for the initiation of summer operations, which cannot be long delayed.

The question is being asked: If the concentrated and long-prepared German and Rumanian effort, with the surprise of improved secret weapons, was not able to clear the Kerch Peninsula, what chance have they of prevailing against the main Russian armies between Kursk and the Black Sea?

The Germans are dealing more fiercely with guerillas when they are able to seize them. Germans at Minsk shot 150 partisans.

ALLIED SUPPLIES

POURING INTO RUSSIA

Rec. 1.30 p.m,

LONDON, May 11

The British United Press correspondent at Ankara reports that weilInformed quarters say that 1,500,000 tons of British and American war materials have reached North Russian ports during the winter and an average of 20 lorries daily has entered from Iran as well as quantities by rail. The volume of materials entering from north and south is increasing.