AIR OFFENSIVE IN RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23971, 11 June 1943, Page 5

AIR OFFENSIVE IN RUSSIA

Soviet Pilots Hold Initiative DAMAGE DONE TO SUPPLY BASES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. June 10. Soviet aeroplanes are leading the way in the new phase of the air offensive now in full swing in Russia. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow says that the Luftwaffe, for the first time since the war started, is copying the Red Air Force tactics by-concen-trating on disorganising communication centres to the rear. There is no doubt that the damage done to German centres by Russian pilots is many times greater than the Luftwaffe is inflicting on Russian centres. German losses continue to be heavy enough to justify the assumption that they will affect to a noticeable degree Germany’s capacity to take the offensive. The air warfare at present is particularly marked along and to the rear of the Donets line and on the Bryansk and Leningrad sectors, the correspondent adds. Torpedo aeroplanes and Stormoviks are participating •in attacks against German transport in the Baltic. The Luftwaffe in the Arctic is again actively attacking Soviet ships. Eighteen Soviet fighters in a battle on Tuesday shot down seven of 24 Focke Wulfs and Messerschmitts for the loss of one. It is known that more than 60 Gorman pilots were taken prisoner during one of the mass Luftwaffe raids against Kursk. The Germans had to draw heavily from other sectors for aeroplanes in order to concentrate substantial forces against Kursk. The Moscow radio announced that a large formation of Soviet long-range aircraft on Tuesday night delivered a powerful blow against six enemy aerodromes. At least 150 to 160 German aeroplanes were destroyed or damaged, ammunition and oil dumps were blown up. and a great number of aerodrome buildings, including hangars, were set on fire. Twenty-two Soviet aeroplanes did not return.

German aircraft in daylight on Tuesday attempted to raid Volkhov, south of Leningrad, in two groups totalling 70 aeroplanes. They were intercepted, and only a few broke through, dropping bombs at random and damaging residential buildings. No industrial or other targets suffered. Twenty-four German aeroplanes were destroyed for the loss of two Russian aircraft. Soviet aeroplanes, the Moscow radio added, sank a German transport in the Barents Sea. and in the Baltic an enemy transport and three guard vessels were sunk. There was ground activity yesterday on the Leningrad front, where Soviet detachments wiped out two enemy infantry companies. To-day’s Soviet communique reports that no important change has occurred in the land fighting. Yesterday’s German communique claims that German close-range bomber formations on Tuesday sank 47 landing barges off the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. Reuter comments that this indicates a new large-scale Russian attempt to land troops behind the German battlefront in the Kuban. The Berlin radio has indirectly admitted that Oranienbaum, an important coastal defence position in the Gulf of Finland, 20 miles west of Leningrad, is in Russian hands. The radio said that the Luftwaffe successfully attacked an enemy aerodrome and supply base at Oranienbaum. This is the first admission that the Russians have recaptured the town.