VAST MOVEMENT OF IN AND MATERIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 82, 7 April 1943, Page 3

VAST MOVEMENT OF IN AND MATERIAL

ON RUSSIAN FRONTS Hard Fighting Continues In Donetz And Kuban N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. noon. LONDON, April 6. A vast . movement of men and material is proceeding along the 1200 miles of front as Russian and German forces prepare for the next stage of the conflict. Meantime hard fighting is reported only from the Donetz and the Kuban sectors. Reuters Moscow correspondent ■says that the Germans are seriously worried about the Russian bridgehead on the west bank of the Donetz south of Isyum, the continued existence of which renders the German position at Kharkov insecure. Consequently bitter fighting is going on there daily. The Germans are bringing up more planes, tanks and men. A-small number of Germans penetrated the Soviet line yesterday, but were wiped out in hand-to-hand fighting. The Germans are not likely to have forgotten that the Russians' grim retention of the bridgeheads of Voronezh last year provided the Red Army with jumping-off places for their great offensive. Berlin radio mentioned fighting in the middle Donetz area north of Balakleya, which is 30 miles, north-west of Isyum. The radio said the Germans stormed a strategically important locality and reached the Donetz on a five-mile front. A Russian communique, quoted by British Official Wireless, describes the further fighting south of Izyum and the repulse of German infantry, tank and air attacks. South of Lake Ilmen the Russians dislodged the Germans from several fortified positions. In one sector here snipers have wiped out 93 Germans in the' past few days. A woman sniper, Nina Smetanina, accounted for 17. Pounding Kuban Defences Reports from the Kuban indicate that after several days of better weather, heavy rain is how hampering the movements of General Maslennikoffs forces. He is using the interval to pound the German defence lines with artillery. Meanwhile Russian Stormoviks are bombing roads and shipping in the Kerch Straits. The Times Stockholm correspondent says General Maslennikoff is using large forces—the Germans say several divisions — against the Krymskaya sector. This apparently is what the Russians mean in stating that their artillery is shelling a centre of resistance. Berlin radio's announcement yesterday that the Germans at Staraya Russa "carried out a successful withdrawal to new positions" is interpreted by the Moscow correspondent to mean that Marshal Timoshenko has thrown the Germans out of the town. Moscow has not officially claimed its capture. Correspondents say the capture of this strongly fortified base may open the way for a Russian drive through the Baltic States, north-ea'st to the Baltic Sea. German armies still in the Leningrad area may be forced to withdraw west to avoid being cut off. <#

TORTURE AND DEATH

What German Occupation In Russia Means ON GENERALS' ORDERS Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, April 6. The Moscow radio has broadcast a statement from a special commission investigating German atrocities, and vandalism in Soviet territory, which accuses the Nazis of ruthlessly destroying Soviet towns and villages and torturing, outraging and murdering peaceful citizens. History has known no such wholesale extermination of people, says the statement, which mentions particularly the German barbarities in the regions of Viazma, Giatsk and Rjev, where, on the orders of the German Generals, Heinritz and Model, Soviet citizens, including women, children and the aged had their eyes burnt out and their feet, hands and ears cut off. The statement cites numerous instances of citizens being shot in batches after being forced to dig their own graves. In two villages in the Giatsk district all the inhabitants, including small children, were burnt Soviet war prisoners were deliberately refused medical assistance, and some used as targets during firing practice. Hitler's army tortures and kills all those it does not want, Avhile those capable of working are carried away like cattle to Germany. , ACROSS SIBERIA NEW RAILWAY BEING USED Rec. noon. LONDON, April 6. According to a German magazine published in Stockholm the Russians are operating a' new trans-Siberian railway which they are using for the transport of British and American supplies to China, arms excepted. The railway, it is stated, begins at Taisiet, about 1600 miles east of Moscow, and runs east to Lena River, north of Lake Baikal, thence to the coast at a point about 500 miles north of Vladivostock. —j — .