BELLIGERENTS IN RUSSIA

Evening Star, Issue 24482, 17 April 1943, Page 5

BELLIGERENTS IN RUSSIA

SOVIET PRESSURE IN KERCH STRAITS AREA (Rec. noon.) LONDON, April 16. The pitch to which the Russians and Germans are keyed on the eastern front is shown by a flaring up in the fighting immediately the weather shows the least sign of permitting sizeable action. The slight hardening of the ground brought a strong German counter-attack yesterday in the Lower Kuban, where activity is still centred. Moscow despatches state that in his German couuter-attack, mounted with large infantry forces backed up by 46 panzer formations, the Germans pressed hard. but the attack was abandoned in the face of the strong Russian defence. The Russians’, powerful night attack swept back the Germans. Reuter says the Russians who are battering against the Germans at the Taman bridgehead are only 60 miles from Kerch Straits; The Germans in the counter-attack mentioned lost 23 tanks and nearly 1,000 men. The fighting on the Middle and Upper. Donetz fronts, which has hitherto! been comparable with the scale of activity in the Kuban, has i become intermittent, with the Russians holding on to the vital bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donetz. The Russians threw back an attack north of Chuguyev, after which they counterattacked and improved their positions.'