GERMAN ATTACKS REPELLED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23915, 6 April 1943, Page 5

GERMAN ATTACKS REPELLED

Russian Defence On Donets RED ARMY GAINS IN KUBAN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 5. To-day’s Soviet communique reports a new German attack on the Russian bridgehead at Izyum. The Russians threw tanks into action and the attack was repelled.

The Germans attacked a Russian outpost in the Byelgorod area. The Russians counter-attacked and drove the Germans back.

Only local engagements are reported from the Smolensk front. A further Russian advance is reported from the Kuban, where men of the Red Army have occupied a favourable position. A Russian advance resulted in street fighting in the outskirts of a town.

The great question-mark on the Russian front at the moment is: “Will the Russians retake Novorossiisk?" The amazing position exists at Novorossiisk that while the Germans hold the town and port they have not been able to use the port because a group of Russians, throughout the winter, has clung to a bit of cement works on the southern outskirts and their guns dominate the port. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow points out that a determined Russian movement in the Kuban has been going on for a week and that the capture of Prikubansky, which is 29 miles from Novorossiisk, indicates that the tempo is being maintained. The Germans’ most definite offensive at present is being made south of Izyum, where they are keeping up their tireless efforts to dislodge the Russians from their bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donets. The fighting inside the small loop of the Donets is raging fiercely. German attacks, beginning with a 45-minute air bombard-

ment, lasted all yesterday. The Germans at one stage penetrated the Russian front line, but a counter-attack restored the position.

The German News Agency states that the Russians, for the first time since the winter, are attempting to supply Leningrad by ships, escorted by ice-breakers, across Lake Ladoga. The Moscow radio on Sunday reported that the Red Army is now generally using a new type of tank called the 106, which was first usdd in breaking the Leningrad blockade when the Russians stormed the steep bank of the Neva river, which the Germans considered tank-proof.