COUNTER-ATTACKS BEATEN BACK

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 172, 17 April 1942, Page 5

COUNTER-ATTACKS BEATEN BACK

Central Soviet Front NAZI LINE BROKEN NEAR BRIANSK (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, April 16. The Red Army is still upsetting Hitler’s plans for a spring offensive. On the Smolensk front the Germans have been forced to fling in more support tanks and artillery. The Russians have beaten back German counter-attacks and a Moscow report says that in an all-day and night battle 500 of the enemy were killed. Serious fighting is reported to be continuing in the Kalinin area, and Moscow radio says that the enemy strength is being whittled away. The spring thaws have not yet reached the Kalinin theatre and the Soviet tanks there are proving better in strength and manoeuvrability, the Moscow radio says, than the German tanks which are often held up in the heavy drifts. LONDON, April 15. Moscow radio stated that after a ten-day battle, General Zhukov’s forces, penetrating the German second line of defence in the Bryansk area, recaptured many villages and wiped out 3000 Germans. At one point the Russians captured a fort at the point of the bayonet. Reports from Kuibyshev speak of particularly bloody though small-scale battles now being fought out on the Kalinin front. The Russians, it is claimed, are still advancing and continue to inflict the heaviest casualties on the enemy. In one engagement more than 1000 Germans were killed, and the Red Army battered down a score of fortified positions. The "Red Star” reports that in the north-west sector the German command has called on reserves which have just arrived from far in the rear. In one sector attacks lasting several days were made to break through the Soviet defence lines. One large attack was backed by more than 100 bombers, but the Germans did not succeed in piercing the defences. Leningrad radio announced that German planes dying in single groups have been increased from 20 to 40. but in spite of this the enemy has completely failed to get mastery of tlie air before the thaw makes the aerodromes unserviceable. Less Activity. According to the Germans, activity on the Eastern Front has relaxed since the weekend, even in tlie Douetz Basin and the Crimea, and it is expected that mud will bring major operations to a standstill till May, reports the Stockholm correspondent of "The Times.” One of the German High Command’s greatest problems is in combating guerrillas, whose persistent aggressiveness is keeping hundreds of thousands of Germans pinned down guarding railways, though the High Command wants to divert them for tlie concentration of huge armies in other sectors in readiness for the main offensives in May or June.

Writing in the "Moscow News,” Colonel Zhurzvlev says that the first week in April, in which it has already been stated that 466 German planes were destroyed, the Germans lost 22,000 killed and wounded on two fronts alone, with two to three times this number wounded. Last night's Soviet communique <?ays: “On Wednesday no events of importance occurred on the front. On Tuesday 14 German planes were destroyed. Our losses were five planes. Naval forces sank in the Barents Sea two enemy transports of 9000 and 6000 tons respectively.” A Berlin communique stated that heavy artillery shelled an important objective in Leningrad, causing fires and explosions. The Luftwaffe attacked the harbour and the aerodrome at Sebastopol. Moscow radio says that the Germans at Vitebsk have invented a new and ghastly form of execution. The victim’s chin is pierced with a rusty hook attached to a rope, and the victim is then pulled up on to the gallows, the hook, under the weight of the body, slowly penetrating the throat. Death comes several days later after terrible sufferings. The inhabitants of Vitebsk have named the invention “Himmler’s Hook.”

KILLED BY PARTISANS

Party Of German Soldiers Blown Up (Received April 16, 11.55 p.m.) (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 16. A Soviet communique states that a German n.c.o. taken prisoner reported that recently 40 German soldiers were ordered to Staraya Russa in order to be decorated with the Iron Cross. During the ceremony, a great explosion occurred and all 40 soldiers and officers participating in the ceremony were killed. It was ascertained that partisans had mined and blown up the building, but the partisans could not be found.