NEW SOVIET ATTACKS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23882, 26 February 1943, Page 5

NEW SOVIET ATTACKS

German Reports

FIERCE FIGHTING IN DONETS

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 25. On the southern front In Russia lighting is fiercest just south of the Donets river, in the region north of Stalin, and at some places on the river itself. The fighting here has reached a new pitch of intensity. The Germans are also resisting strongly south-west of Kramatorskaya, and are exerting every effort to hold the Russian threat to Mariupol, The Russians have pressed on further west of Kharkov, and have captured another town after hard fighting. They have achieved other gains north of Kursk, and have pressed nearer to Orel.

General Maslennikov, in a message to M. Stalin, discussed the prospects of the Red armies on the Kalinin front; “The armies on the Kalinin front, fighting 200 miles from the German border, will assist the Red armies north-westwards of Volkhov and on the Leningrad front to throw the enemy into the Baltic.” Reuter's correspondent points out that there have been no official reports lately of fighting in this sector, but General Maslennikov’s mention of it portends big moves. Wednesday’s German communique reports that the Russians south-east of Lake Ilmen launched a new attack on a wide front. The reported new full-scale Russian offensive on the central front, announced by the Berlin radio, is stated to have begun near Sukhinichi, 145 miles south-west of Moscow. Describing the opening of the attack, the Berlin radio said that early on Monday morning an intense artillery barrage from 400 guns began, and by midday it had mounted to a veritable hurricane of steel. Russian tank brigades rolled forward, supported by masses of infantry, but heavy German artillery fire forced the Russians to withdraw to their starting point. Axis propaganda is at present foreshadowing big new Axis withdrawals on the southern front. Rome radio to-day surprisingly stated that the Germans were firmly defending the Orel-Mariupol line, which is further westward than any Russian claims.

“General Golikov’s army, advancing on a 40 miles front, captured two more German strongholds west of Lebedin,” says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. “The spearhead is now about 160 miles from Kiev. This Russian advance between Sumy and Kiev is being made across the southern, fringe of the Chernigov Province, where lies the territory known as ‘guerrilla land,’ consisting of huge tracts of country and hundreds of villages under the control of Ukrainian guerrillas. The German hold on this province has always been very .precarious, and confined mostly to the railways and to fortified towns. If the Red Army links up with the guerrillas the Germans must expect a serious situation in their rear.”

Driving north from Sumy, the Russians are now about 20 miles from the vital main Kiev-Kursk railway, and threaten to trap the large German forces fighting west of Kursk, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Other Russian forces, according to German reports, are driving towards the key rail junction of Konotop.

Russian, tanks from Lebedm have advanced 12 miles to the west, and. according to some reports, have crossed the Psiol river at several points. The Red Army’s drive from Krasnograd to Poltava also seems to be progressing favourably.

German Endeavour to Make a Stand With hopes of the thaw coming to the 'rescue,-''it "is evident that the German High Command’ intends to make an all-out effort to hold the Donets basin. Side by side with the reports of the Russian thrusts towards Kiev, dispatches from Moscow reveal that masses of additional German infantry, tanks, and artillery are being thrown in in the Kramatorskaya and Krasnoarmeysk areas, Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the German High Command has ordered the recapture of these vital railway centres at all costs. The Germans are, therefore, launching ceaseless counter-attacks, supported by groups of upwards of 100 tanks. The Russians, nevertheless, are pushing back the Germans and show their confidence in their ability to hold Kramartorskaya and Krasnoarmeysk by continuing their restoration work there.

The British United Press Moscow correspondent reports that the thaw is coming early this year, and that the terrific German efforts to hold positions are obviously designed to maintain the present line until the spring. However, the Russian artillery and tank-busters are still reducing the German strength and are maintaining the general advance over the whole front.

Local populations liberated in the Donets basin—miners, farmers, and metal workers—are flocking to swell the ranks of the Russian armies. Meanwhile the thaw is slowly spreading along the entire Ukraine steppes, and it is feared that it may soon affect the Russians’ northward advance towards Poltava. Reuter says that while the Germans are making an effort to retain a foothold in the centre of the Donets basin, their right flank on the Sea of Azov k increasingly threatened. General Malinovski, rapidly advancing westwards from Rostov, has captured a range of hills between Taganrog and Mariupol, and has stormed a stronglydefended river (probably the river Mius).

Heavy concentrations of the Luftwaffe are observed in the southern Donets sector, but the Russians have beaten off German air attacks, inflicting losses of more than 35 aeroplanes a day. The Germans are evidently racing against time before fresh Red Army forces come up from the Caucasus, where the fighting has almost ended.

The Russian commander on the Black Sea coast has advised M. Stalin that his task of clearing the Germans out of the western Caucasus will soon be finished. He wants a new assignment.

“Izvestia” states that 70,000 inhabitants of Kharkov died of hunger during the enemy occupation of the city, and 110,000 young men and women were transported to Germany. Fourteen thousand Jews were killed in cold blood, after they had been ordered into a ghetto. The Germans, before they left the city, set fire to most of its large buildings, including hospitals.

RUSSIAN AND U.S. TRADE UNIONS

BRITISH LABOUR PLAN OPPOSED

NEW YORK, Feb, 24. A luncheon given by the American Federation of Labour in honour of the British Trades Union Congress delegation, headed by Sir Walter Citrine, resulted in a clash when Sir Walter, addressing 200 assembled Labour leaders, advocated a British-American labour alliance with the Soviet trade unions in order to promote the war effort and prepare for peace.

After the luncheon, the American Federation of Labour issued a statement to the press expressing surprise that Sir Walter had reiterated a proposal which had already been rejected in America.