SEE-SAW STRUGGLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 65, 18 March 1943, Page 5

SEE-SAW STRUGGLE

DESPERATE FIGHTING ON THE DONETS

(By Telegraph—press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. noon.) LONDON, March 17. The slowing up of the German counter-offensive in the middle Donets, the continuation of the German retreat on the Smolensk front, where the Russians are reported to be 30 miles from Smolensk, and the disclosure of a fresh Russian attack in the extreme north towards Petsamo are high lights of today's reports of the massive struggle on the Russian front.

Reuters Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians, doggedly fighting back from the line of the Donets River, have slowed but not yet halted the German counter-offensive. A desperate see-saw struggle is being waged along the Donets below Kharkov, where the Germans, despite their unceasing efforts, have so far failed to force a crossing. Fortified places are changing hands several times a day. The Russians in some sectors in the middle Donets are beginning to wrest the "initiative from the enemy. The Russians have retained a number of bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donets which they are striving to enlarge. The Red Army is firmly defending the Izyum elbow of the Donets, where they hold a number of commanding heights. Since the Germans launched their counter-offensive on the middle Donets a fortnight ago the Russians have strengthened their gun park along the Donets, and this mass of artillery is supplementing anti-tank shock troops armed with long-barrelled anti-tank rifles, inflicting heavy losses on the German panzer forces.

* HUGE NAZI ARRAY IN IZYUM

AREA.

Reuters Stockholm correspondent says that reinforcements are now apEarently reaching General Golikov's ard-nressed troops, which are successfully holding attacks against Izyum i and in the direction of Byelgorod. The German command has concentrated, a huge array of armoured units and heavy artillery against Izyum. The Red Army holds a stretch along the west bank of the Donets covering the approaches to Izyum. *

The Moscow correspondent of "The Times" agrees that the Russian positions on the middle Donets front m the past 24 hours have shown a certain improvement. The Germans, although striking with undiminished fury, have not gained ground in the important sectors south and southeast of Kharkov.

Balancing the scale, Russians on the Smolensk front under General Koniev are relentlessly forcing the Germans to retreat westwards.

Moscow radio says that men of the Red Army, after an outflanking manoeuvre, crossed the River Vorona and captured the district centre of Miliatinsky Zovod, on the Rzhev-Bryansk railway line 95 miles from Bryansk. The capture of Igorievskaya has strengthened General Koniev's hold on the north-south railway from Nikitinka to Durovo. Durovo is threatened from the east by a force advancing along the Smolensk railway.

The Moscow correspondent of "The Times" says that the capture of Igorievskaya has probably trapped a considerable amount of rolling stock between Igorievskaya and the railhead 13 miles to the north.