AMID BOMB CRATERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 140, 16 June 1942, Page 5

AMID BOMB CRATERS

DEFENCE HOLDS OUT

LONDON, June 15.\ A correspondent says that some sectors of Sebastopol are now little more than shell and-bomb craters, but the defenders are holding: out grimly. After battering: the strongly-held Russian positions on the Kharkov front for four days, reports Renter's Moscow correspondent, the Germans are now bringing up reinforcements. Their losses in men. and tanks are very heavy. They have not managed to get beyond the stage of hitting sharply against several narrow sectors, hoping to find a weak spot to break thr^*"sh. Whereas Marshal Timoshenkr . ye on the same front led to a gr ... .--issh of armoured Vehicles, the press: i struggle appears to have developed irA---a great battle of fire-power. •Russian, methods of dealinl/" wi.---tanks are now so effective tha* 'he advantage nowadays tends to lie with: the defence. Panzers remain a danger,! but are no longer the absolute menace they represented last year. The German High Command therefore has tried to give additional sting, to the attack by closely supporting its! tanks with planes. It is clear that thisj additional fire-power has given the Russians a warm time.in some of the; narrow sectors, but it is equally clear I that it has not had the devastating; effect intended. SOVIET GUNS POWERFUL. The new Russian anti-tank guns are wreaking havoc among the German panzers. "Pravda" reports that 113 out of 150 tanks were wiped out during a recent attack. The report added: "Our' armour-piercing shells cvt1 through the German tanks like butter." • German paratroops dropped near the Russian lines in various sectors of the Kharkov front were all wiped out. Describing the fighting at Kharkov, one message from Moscow says that1 despite numerical superiority of enemy troops, tanks, and planes concentrated in a number of narrow sectors, the Russians are hitting ftack at some points where the Germans have driven in wedges. The Russians continue to hold their positions in the face of growing pressure, and the. Germans are suffering heavy losses, frequently being ambushed. A Soviet communique states: "Yesterday on the Kharkov front, our troops fought against enemy tanks.and infantry. On the Sebastopol front, fierce fighting continues, during which our troops repulsed enemy attacks. On the other sectors, fighting of local impox*tance took place. "During the sweek from. June 7 to 13 a total of 377 German. aircraft was destroyed. Our, losses in the same period were 135. A naval unit in the Barents Sea sank two enemy transports totalling 15,000 tons."

REINFORCEMENTS FOR SOVIET

Hec. noon.) LONDON, June 15,

Swedish correspondents in Berlin report that Russian reinforcements and fresh material have arrived at Sebastopol.