LOSS OF EQUIPMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 11, 13 July 1943, Page 5

LOSS OF EQUIPMENT

GERMANS SUFFER HEAVILY

LONDON, July .11. After two days of confused fighting on the Byelgorod sector in Russia the situation is still not clear, but, from the Moscow reports, the Germans seem to be 20 miles up the railway towards Kursk. The Russians are strongly counter-attacking, and a communique reports that the enemy's pressure yesterday was held.

Berlin radio claimed that a German advance of 17 miles was made yesterday in the Orel-Kursk sector, but Moscow stated that by the end of the day the enemy was back where he started.

"Hitler is losing on the average one tank every three or four minutes, and also approximately ; eight planes every hour," says Moscow radio. "Never before have the German generals seen their equipment go so fast." However, it is stated, the Germans are still able to keep 15 tank divisions in the field.

Instead of attacking the Russian communication lines, railway junctions, and aerodromes, as in the previous offensives, the Luftwaffe is now almost exclusively concerned with the battlefield, says "Pravda." "The Germans are attaching all types of bombers and fighters to the-ground units, but the enemy's plans are being frustrated, and he is losing the initiative," it states.

"Hundreds of planes are fighting a general air battle on the Orel-Kursk-Byelgorod front. At noon yesterday 500 Russian and German planes were observed simultaneously over one sector."