TANKS AND PLANES

Evening Star, Issue 24915, 13 July 1943, Page 3

TANKS AND PLANES

GERMANS LOSING HEAVILY LONDON, July 11. Hitler is losing an average of one tank every three or four minutes, and approximately eight planes every hour, says Moscow radio. " Never before have German generals seen their equipment go so fast," The newspaper ' Pravda ' says that, instead of attacking communication lines, railway junctions, and aerodromes, as in the previous offensives, the Luftwaffe is now almost exclusively concerned with the battlefield. The Germans are attaching all types of bombers and fighters to the ground units, but the enemy's plans are being frustrated. He is losing the initiative and hundreds of planes in fighting the general air battle on the Orel-Kursk-Byelgorod front. At noon yesterday 500 Russian and German planes were observed simultaneously over one sector.

Due north of Byelgorod 500 tanks, headedVby Tigers, attacked on a narrow frpnt, and, after an exhausting threehour battle, captured a populated point. While the enemy_ regrouped their depleted forces behind screen of aerial bombs masses of Soviet tanks struck a crushing counter-blow and recaptured the settlement. The German tanks withdrew under air cover, but Soviet fighters were brought up, and over-' whelmed the German aircraft, and bombers attacked a. German armoured camp and disorganised masses of tanks, caterpillar guns;-and motorised infantry. This happened at the apex of one of the wedges, and was one of the most severe tactical setbacks for the Germans since the beginning of the offensive.