NO MAJOR CHANGE IN RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23884, 1 March 1943, Page 5

NO MAJOR CHANGE IN RUSSIA

Germans Continue Counter-Attacks GAINS REPORTED FROM MOSCOW (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 28, The general picture of the Russian front has shown no major change in the last 24 hours. West of Rostov the big guns of both sides are pounding away at each other. There are indications that the Russian shelling may be the prelude to a large-scale attack. The Germans say that the Russians have concentrated large tank and artillery forces in this area.

To-day’s Russian communique reports another advance southwest of Voroshilovgrad, in the Donets basin, after enemy coun-ter-attacks had been smashed.

South-west of Kramatorskaya, in the Donets basin, the great battle continues unabated. A big German counter-attack is reported to have been thrown back here. The thaw is steadily extending north, and has reached the Kharkov area, but the Russians report a further advance west of the city, and the occupation of more villages. West of Kursk, the Russians report the capture of an important township, not named. An earlier Russian communique said: “On Saturday Russian troops fought offensive battles in the same direction as before.”

The chief fighting in the last few days, according to Moscow reports, has been in the north-western part of the Donets basin, whore strong German counter-attacks round Krasnoarmeysk have made some progress. The Germans also claim progress further west, in the Lozavaya area

Russian advances on a small scale continue between Kharkov and Orel, but there is no confirmation from Russian sources of reports of an offensive further north. The Russians are now closing in on Orel, the last great German base on the former winter line south of Moscow. The city is surrounded by a deep defensive belt, with fortified villages and strongpoints on the outskirts. These the Russians are taking by artillery fire and tank attacks, often finishing off with a bayonet charge. The Germans admit breaches in the defence lines north of Orel. Soviet tanks are continually probing all the defences.

The fighting in the Donets area was described by Moscow reports on Saturday as fiercer and on a larger scale than any other contests on the entire eastern front. The Germans were fighting to recapture Kramatorskaya and Krasnoarmeysk at any cost, with the result that a number of places changed hands several times. This is stated to be the first enemy effort which has succeeded in halting the Russian advance. The Russians, however, retain the initiative in this and the neighbouring sectors, with encirclement a constant threat to the heavily reinforced German army. It appears that the Germans have temporarily taken the offensive in this sector. It has been obvious for some time that they are able to produce enough troops to hold the Russians. Now they are hitting back. This is largely accounted for by the stretching of Russian communications by the long advance. German Efforts The Russian front is apparently witnessing very determined German counter-strokes along the 500-mile front from Orel to Taganrog. The Germans are throwing in an increasing number of reserves, hoping to stem and throw back the Russian advances, which are imperilling their entire southern line.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent compares the position to the German coun-ter-blow at Kotelnikov, south of Stalingrad, when they attempted a breakthrough to rescue the entrapped 6th Army. The issue hung in the balance for a week, and if the Germans had succeeded there, the Stalingrad battle might have been lost. “Hitler has a similar stake in the Donets basin, where he is seeking to extricate his armies and enormous quantities of equipment from the Russian grip between the Dnieper and the Donets,” says the correspondent. “The Germans are still furiously battling in the Kramatorskaya and Krasnoarmeysk areas in an effort tp regain strategic communications, “The Germans are exhausting them: selves in fruitless counter-attacks against Kramatorskaya and Krasnoarmeysk, which are firmly in Russian hands.

"The Russians are now also struggling against the effects of the thaw, which has transformed the region into a morass, turning the roads into quagmires. Nevertheless, the Russians have pushed on in the north-west of the Dooets basin, capturing a few fortified points. Enemy Reinforcements

“The Germans are using heavy reinforcements of tanks and motorised infantry. They are attempting to thrust in panzer wedges, but these have lost some of their former punch, and the Red Army’s infantry is efficiently cutting off the wedges before they widen. The Russian Air Force is hammering the Luftwaffe bases, and destroyed 27 aeroplanes on one airfield. “German reinforcements are making their weight felt west of Kharkov, but General Goliko- is retaining the initiative, and is driving on towards Poltava and the Dnieper with a threepronged offensive.” A British Official Wireless message says that strong enemy resistance inside the Donets bend points to a refusal to accept the strategic implications of the loss of Kharkov. By repeated counter-attacks with tanks the Germans have managed so far to halt the Russian drive, which threatened to close the western exit from the Donets basin, and it seems that they still hope to delay the Russians by clinging to the cluster of industrial towns round Stalin without being surrounded there. The result is that strong German forces remain concentrated in the inner Donets ring, while the Russians have formed a much wider ring by pushing towards the Dnieper b u jge. The Moscow radio earlier reported particularly fierce fighting west of Krasnodar, in the western Caucasus. The enemy was resisting grimly, but the Russians in one day captured several populated places, wiped out many Germans, and captured large quantities of material. Russian bombers throughout the day were blitzing the crossings and ports of the Kerch Peninsula. Heavy bombers at night were blasting the ice covering the Kerch Strait to prevent German supplies and reinforcements from the Crimea reaching the narrowing enemy bridgehead on the Taman Peninsula. Many gliders, which the Germans are using on a mass scale to carrv reinforcements, have been shot down in flames, and the bases from which they operate heavily raided.

CENTRAL FRONT OFFENSIVE NO CONFIRMATION BY RUSSIANS LONDON. Feb. 26. In spite of Russian official silence, dispatches from Stockholm suggestthat a major offensive has opened on the central front. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that Marshal Timoshenko’s armies, taking advantage of the hard weather, which is favouring tanks, are driving against the German stronghold of Gzhatzk, which covers Vyazma and Smolensk. The Russians have smashed through the German outpost line and have