180-Mile Front In Russia

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1943, Page 5

180-Mile Front In Russia

LONDON, July 5. The Germans have launched a big" offensive on the Russian front. News that the three months' lull has been broken was given in a special communique from Moscow tonight. It said that the Germans launched their attack in the early hours of this morning on the 180-mile front from Byelg-orod, north of Kharkov, to Orel. They sent in large forces of tanks and infantry, supported by large numbers of aircraft. All the attacks were thrown back with heavy losses, although at some points small formations of Germans succeeded in wedging into the Russian defences.

I Some idea of the scale of the German offensive is given in the figures jof the enemy's losses in one day's fighitng—sß6 tanks destroyed or disabled and more than 200 aircraft shot down in air combats or by the Russian ground defences. Fierce fighting continues. For some time Moscow has been reporting that the enemy was massing large forces of troops in this area. Last night, on the eve of the German offensive, Russian bombers attacked three key railway junctions, including Gomel, behind the enemy lines, and ! showered high-explosive and incendiary bombs on troop trains and dumps, inflicting great damage and casualties. The scene of the present fighting, the great 180-mile salient, marks the furthest eastwards advance of the Germans in their counter-offensive last March.