Threat to Sebastopol

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1942, Page 5

Threat to Sebastopol

RELENTLESS ENEMY PRESSURE

LONDON, June 10. # The German threat to Sebastopol is becoming

more serious.

The Soviet newspaper "Red Star" speaks of relentless German pressure. "The fighting is^ becoming fiercer every hour," it says, "yet on the sixth day of this all-out offensive the Russian garrison, finding itself against overwhelming odds, has not yielded an inch of ground."

Another Moscow message says that well over 100,000 Germans are being thrown against the Soviet defence ring, which is nowhere more than an hour's ride from the city itself.

Big guns are playing a great part in the fighting. The Germans claim that their artillery concentrations on the small front exceed anything yet seen, but they admit the extreme stubbornness of the Russian resistance. The Russians say that the Germans' main attacks are being launched | against two heights commanding the city. For three days the Germans have made desperate, attempts to take ; these heights. Last night the enemy. infiltrated into , the Russian positions^ but they were held by intense Soviet fighting. The battle is still raging around these heights. So far, the Russians have overcome supply difficulties. The Red Fleet still controls the Crimean coast and has landed several cargoes of ammunition at Sebastopol since the new attacks began. The non-stop air battles over Sebastopol are as savage as the fighting on the ground. Both sides are using more and more planes. Scores of i German dive-bombers are trying to blast the Russian positions and Sebastopol itself. Some of them have heavily bombed Soviet fighting units. The stukas are not having it all their own way. Yesterday 16 German planes were shot down and 19 more were damaged Russian dive-bombers smashed five German, tanks and four batteries.