RUSSIANS HOLD INITIATIVE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23554, 4 February 1942, Page 5

RUSSIANS HOLD INITIATIVE

* Plan To Check Nazi i Spring Offensive MORE GAINS MADE ON MAIN FRONTS (Received February 3, 11.20 p.m.) (F.P.A.) LONDON. February 3. The Red Army expects the Germans to use between 6000 and 7000 new tanks produced this winter for an offensive in the spring, says the Moscow correspondent of “The Times.” The Luftwaffe since December has considerably reduced its operations, because, it is believed, of a lack „ of ski fittings for under-carriages. The Luftwaffe unquestionably will again operate in the spring, but the Russians have less regard for it than for tanks. The current Russian offensives are therefore intended to destroy the maximum number of men and tanks and also to embarrass the potential offensive by maintaining the initiative. This, according to the latest reports from all sectors, they are succeeding in doing. The Russians have recaptured an important place on the central front which is identified by the letter “V.” The Moscow radio, giving this news, said that the locality was taken before the Germans had had time to destroy it. About 1000 Germans were killed in the operation. The other important Soviet thrust is in the south. The Soviet grip on Kharkov, (he industrial capital of the Ukraine, has been tightened by the capture of Gavrilovka, about 65 miles south of Kharkov. With the Donets-Moscow railway now clear of the enemy, supplies are speeding along the line to Moscow, and coal from the Donets Basin has already reached the capital by this route.

Marshal Timoshenko’s forces are now launching mass attacks against Kharkov. The Moscow radio states that after two days of fierce fighting Gavrilovka was captured. Much booty was also captured. Big forces of German aeroplanes attempted to relieve the Germans, but failed. Admitting great attacks, the Official German News Agency described how wave after wave of Red Army troops hurled themselves against Kharkov’s defences, while near the city fighting went on in a raging blizzard. Last night’s Soviet communique reported that Russian forces had withdrawn from Theodosia, on the southeastern coast of the Crimea. To-day’s communique from Moscow again reports that operations against the enemy were continued throughout the night, and a supplement to the communique says that 200 Germans were annihilated as they were fleeing from the town of Sukhinichi, 140 miles south-west of Moscow and on one of the railways leading to Smolensk. Both Moscow and Berlin speak of German counter-attacks. The Germans claim that they were successful and that a number of villages were recaptured. The Russians say that the counter-attacks were repulsed with heavy German losses. The Leningrad radio yesterday announced that the Russians on the Leningrad front had broken through to the German rear, where they were ope-

rating successfully, killing many mans. “Pravda” gives some idea of German losses in recent fighting. One unit alone wiped out 1200 German officers and men, and an air unit accounted for a further 300. In the advance on Smolensk. 21 villages were recaptured with heavy loss to the Germans, and one Soviet tank unit, participating in this advance, smashed 23 German tanks. It also took large quantities of booty. In one village, the German garrison of 350 was wiped out. A platoon of Russian ski troops killed 10 Germans. From January 25 to 31 the German Air Force lost 150 machines, 85 of which were destroyed on enemy airfields. The Russians lost 21 aeroplanes. The Moscow radio states that General Drison, commander of the 62nd German Army Corps, was killed in an unnamed town. The Stockholm correspondent of the •‘Daily Express” reports that 20 of 25 German divisions withdrawn from the Russian front early in December for special training as storm troops in the coming spring offensive have been sent back to the Eastern Front, after an urgent demand from Hitler’s generals for reinforcements to prevent a general Russian break-through. A message from Moscow says that a Soviet submarine in northern waters sank three enemy transports totalling 15,000 tons. Another sank a transport of -5000 tons.

FRAUD ALLEGED £500,000 OBTAINED FROM GOVERNMENT LONDON, February 2. It was alleged in the Liverpool Court that £500,000 had been wrongfully obtained from the Government since the outbreak of the war by means of fraud. Maud Tester, single, secretary to F. H. Porter, Ltd., ship scalers, was remanded till February 13. She was charged with having stolen £SOOO from F. H. Porter, Ltd., and with having conspired with Councillor Charles Rowland Clare and others unknown to obtain money by false pretences from Grayson Rollo and Clover Docks, Ltd., between September, 1939, and December, 1941. The prosecutor said that F. H. Porter, Ltd., had sub-contracts with the Admiralty, the Ministry of Shipping, and shipping companies for repair work on ships. The company employed substantial numbers of boys, and the authorities were charged men’s wages for boys’ work on ships. When it became known that an investigation was in progress, 900 men disappeared from the company’s books. The prosecutor said that Tester was alleged to have, stated that fictitious wages sheets were made up each week for men not employed by the company. Frederick William Porter, the head of the firm, shot himself in the head' and died in hospital. The Coroner found that he had committed suicide while mentally disturbed by business worries.

AXIS SPY RING IN MEXICO

WOMEN AGENTS OPERATE MEXICO CITY. February 2. The Mexican newspaper “Excelsior” declares that the Mexican Intelligence Department has confirmed the existence of a group of female Axis spies, known as the “Mata Hari Corps,” who have become close friends of • high Government officials through exercise mg their charms. \ It adds that the revelations of Axis' espionage made in the Chamber of Deputies recently resulted from the anger of a deputy when a young, attractive spy failed to keep a week-end appointment with him. The paper asserts that one member of the “Mata Hari Corps” was seen with Dr. Arnulfo Arias, the deposed pro-Axis President of Panama, who was recently in Mexico, but has since 1 left for Venezuela. Officials of the Department of the Interior declare that Mexico is in- ' auguraling a much closer supervision over the movements of Axis aliens, especially those who arrived since December 7. and American and Mexican collaboration against Nazi agents will henceforth be increased. PUBLIC VIGILANCE TESTED REPORTERS WALK ABOUT IN NAZI UNIFORMS PHILADELPHIA, February 2. Repeating a recent London experiment. two Philadelphia reporters, with the object of testing public vigilance, walked the crowded streets of Philadelphia clad in the uniform of Nazi U-boat commanders, with swastikas plainly visible on their caps. They were not challenged, in spite of mi hour’s stroll and having dinner in a crowded restaurant, where they asked questions in broken English,

SMUTS CONFIDENT

“NO DOUBT ABOUT FINAL OUTCOME” LONDON, February 2, The Prime Minister of South Africa (General Smuts), in a review of tfia war position, said there was no doubt about the final outcome, although no one knew what might hap'pen in the Pacific and Indian Oceans in the next

GENERAL SMUTS

six months. The war was a world-wide conflict, in which there was a danger to South Africa. In Libya there was no reason for complacency, but the situation as a whole did not cause dissatisfaction. He thought the set-back there was comparatively unimportant, and that the Imperial forces would soon recover the ground lost. South Africa was on the track of German agents responsible for recent sabotage, and a regulation has bden gazetted providing the death penalty for sabotage. MORE SABOTAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA COMMUNICATIONS CUT (8.0. W.) RUGBY, February 2. From Johannesburg further ads of sabotage are reported in the Free State and northern Cape Province, where telegraph and telephone lines have been cut. Communications between Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kimberley, East London, and Port Elizabeth were interrupted for some hours. It is learned in London that last Thursday’s acts of sabotage in South Africa, where the main high-tension pylons connecting the Victoria Falls power station at Vereeniging with the goldmines wore blown up by dynamiters, have now been proved to be the work of Nazi agents operating from headquarters in Portuguese East Africa. The Minister for the Interior (Mr H, G. Lawrence) has stated that the headquarters of the saboteurs’ organisation have been traced to agents beyond the Union’s Mozambique border. Dr. D. F. Malan. Leader of the Opposition, has stated publicly that his supporters are not responsible for this sabotage, and has warned all South Africans against acts of violence. Dr. van Rensburg. leader of th* Ossewabrandwag, the extreme antiGovernment movement, has also repudiated any connexion with the saboteurs.