RUSSIANS GAIN GROUND

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23945, 12 May 1943, Page 3

RUSSIANS GAIN GROUND

Stubborn Battle For Novorossiisk GERMANS BRING UP RESERVES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. May 11. The Russians are battering their way step by step towards the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The main assault is from the north-east, where the Germans have built a formidable system of defence lines, through which, the Russians emphasise, there is no quick or easy way. The Russians have cleared the first defence line, and are making inroads into the second. The Paris radio reports a new bigscale Russian landing near the city. The report has not been confirmed by the Russians. “The Germans arc reported to be drawing on reserves earmarked for a summer offensive in an attempt to hold Novorossiisk,” says the Moscow correspondent of “The Times.” “It seems they are determined to keep their heels dug into this last strip of the Caucasian coastline. The Red Army is still advancing towards Novorossiisk, but the defences are thick and tough, and progress is slow. Russian artillery first hammers selected fortified areas, which shock troops seize and hold against bitter counter-attacks.” The Moscow radio reports that Russian Guardsmen, using bayonets and rifle butts, at dawn attacked and burst through German defence positions north-east of Novorossiisk. They reached the top of a fortified ridge, and captured German machine-guns were turned against the retreating enemy. “The Kuban campaign and the air war against German communications have developed according to plan,” says the Associated Press correspondent in Moscow. “The Red Army in the Kuban has penetrated the outer fortifications of Novorossiisk, and the enemy defences are reported to be crumbling,” “Pravda” reports that the intensity of the battle is increasing. The Russians are outrunning the enemy, and also holding air superiority. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow says: “The Russians are fighting their way forward, against heavy opposition, nearer to Temryuk, a small town near the north bank of the Kuban river, about 30 miles from the Kerch Straits. The Germans are using tanks in numerous counter-attacks to stem the Russians progress, but all their attempts have failed.” The Moscow radio yesterday quoted an article on the activities of the Red Fleet, which described the role of the Black Sea Navy in the fighting in the Novorossiisk area. Soviet marines, taking part in land offensive operations, are advancing towards Novorossiisk. and shore artillery batteries are destroying enemy troops and .weapons. Aeroplanes belonging to the air arm of the Black Sea Navy attacked an cnemv aerodrome, destroyed four antiaircraft points and eight aeroplanes and damaged nine aeroplanes. Aeroplanes supporting the operations of the Soviet ground forces frustrated an attack by enemy bombers, and in spile of the numerical superiority of German aeroplanes the Russian fighters shot down eight German aeroplanes. Cutters entered an enemy harbour and sank by torpedo a large self-propelled barge. , _. ... Fighting continues in the Lisitichansk area, on the Donets river, where the enemy is trying to regain the ground he lost to the Russians last week.

GERMAN FORCES IN RUSSIA

“SUPERHUMAN HARDSHIPS FACED” LONDON, May 10. The German people to-day heard some admissions from Hitler himself about the sufferings of their troops in Russia during the winter. In an appeal for the German Red Cross, Hitler said that a crisis so severe had been faced in Russia that he did not think any other soldiers could have come through it. T'ne Germans in the homeland had had the war carried into their towns and villages, but what they were suffering did not compare with the superhuman hardships the troops had to face on the various fronts, especially in Russia. The Germans have also been told that their weekly meat ration is to be cut by 2Aoz. At present it is 12oz.