DEADLY THUNDERBOLT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 41, 17 August 1942, Page 5

DEADLY THUNDERBOLT

Latest American Fighter

(Rec. 12.15 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Aug. 16. Lieut.-General 11. 11. Arnold, Chief of the United States Army Air Forces, said that the United States had developed a new high-, altitude fighter, the Republic P. 47 (or "Thunderbolt"), which is believed to be able to outfly any other known aeroplane. The Thunderbolt carries guns, the projectiles of which have an impact equal to the force of a five-ton lorry hitting a brick wall at 60 i miles an hour. General Arnold asserted that American bombers had already established themselves as superior to anything which the enemy had so far shown, giving illustrations irom official reports.

of Novorossisk, German infantry, supported by the air force, are attempting to establish a bridgehead on the River Kuban. The Soviet air force constantly attacked, inflicting" heavy losses on the enemy. One hundred and fifty Germans with automatic rifles who succeeded in crossing the river, were annihilated. In the region of Maikop, the first but smallest of the three main Caucasian oil centres to be reached by the Germans. Russian troops repelled one enemy attack, annihilated 400 enemy officers and men, and destroyed eleven tanks and 24 lorries.

In the region of. Mineralnye Vody the. enemy, with numerically superior forces, pushed back one Soviet unit. During this engagement six enemy tanks were destroyed and 250 enemy officers and men were killed.

In the region of Voronezh. Russian troops pushed .forward, killing 1200 enemy officers and men.

On' the western bank of the Don, after on hour's artillery shelling, two battalions of Hungarians attacked the Soviet positions. They were met by mortar and machine-gun fire and were routed and compelled to retreat* leaving on the battlefield several hundred killed and wounded.

On the Bryansk front one enemy infantry regiment, supported by one motorised infantry battalion attacked the Russian- positions. Soviet troops launched a counter-attack and ejected the enemy from one locality.

The Germans sent against partisans in the Leningrad, district about 2000 infantry, supported by ten tanks and two armoured cars and a large number of planes. The partisans defeated the enemy.

Taking advantage of the mountainous country at Mineralnye Vodv. the Germans are trying to outflank the Soviet defences. They have concentrated in gorges behind the hills, but the active Soviet defence is frequently frustrating1 the enemy's plans. "Pravda" says that the Nazis, as previously, are concentrating their main forces in narrow sectors, seeking to break through the defence at any price.—E.O.W.

and counter-attacking to improve theif positions. ' After the latest German breakthrough in the Krasnodar area in the Caucasus, the Russians attacked the flanks of the advancing enemy, inflicting losses and slowing up the advance, though it has not so far been stemmed. A Soviet communique states: "On Saturday our troops fought the enemy in the regions south-east of Kletskaya and north-east of Kotelnikovo, Mineralnye Vody, Cherkesk, Maikop, and Krasnodar. No important changes took place in the other sectors of the front. A German communique . today states: "We took Georgievsk (in the Caucasus). The Russians in the Voronezh area continued vain diversionary attacks. Numerous Russian attacks were frustrated south-east of Lake Ilmen and at Volkhov." ' The "Pravda" reports that strong German attacks on the Leningrad front were beaten back with heavy enemy losses.