REPORTED TANK BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 178, 24 April 1942, Page 7

REPORTED TANK BATTLE

Huge German Loss LONDON, April 23. An American correspondent, writing from Kuibyshev, reports that in a big tank battle in the far south of the Russian front the Germans lost 126 tanks and 3000 enemy troops were killed. There is no official confirmation of. this from Moscow. Leningrad radio reports that in spite of the slush, the Finns on the Svir front are fiercely counter-attack-ing in an attempt to stem the Russian advance at any costs. The Russians yesterday reported the capture of a further enemy stronghold in this area. The Russians claim that the number of Germans killed there has already reached a four-figure total, apart from the Finnish losses. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times says the Finns are reported to be chagrined at having to do so large a part of the fighting. Berlin claims successful attacks on the Leningrad front “through swampy areas where the soldiers in some parts stand in trenches flooded up to their hips, while at night they frequently sink breast-high, when their coats become a sort of ice armour.” . A Kuibyshev dispatch yesterday said that the Germans lost 5000 killed in a major counter-attack in the Kalinin sector, where the Soviet forces were steadily widening the wedge they had driven'into the German defences. “Peasants’ New Harvest.”

A report from Smolensk eays that tlie melting snows, as well as uncovering countless dead, have revealed much booty left behind by the Germans. The Russian peasants are gathering a new kind of harvest. A 'Soviet communique says: "lhe German air force has suffered heavy losses on the Soviet-German front. From March 22 to April IS, inclusive, the Germans lost 891 planes. The Russians lost during the same period 239." Reports from the front suggest that the Germans are beginning to make greater use of their air force. Tlie Moscow Press has disclosed that the Russian Northern Fleet had by April 1. sunk 85 enemy ships aggregating 378,400 tons. It reveals that the Luftwaffe made an all-out attempt to destroy the Baltic Fleet—no date is specified—but failed miserably and lost 18 aircraft destroyed and 13 damaged.