TEMPO SLACKENING

Evening Star, Issue 24917, 15 July 1943, Page 5

TEMPO SLACKENING

RUSSIANS WEARING DOWN VON KLUGE LONDON, July 14. " The fact that the Germans had to call off their attacks in the OrelKursk direction on the eighth day of their powerful offensive is the best news ihe Russians have had this summer," says the Moscow correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. " There are also indications that the battle is' slackening in all sectors of the central front." Reuter's Moscow correspondent says the Red army is steadily wearing down General von Kluge's forces in ;the battle for the Orel-Kursk bulge. He adds that the fighting went on all day on' Monday in all sectors north and south of, the Kursk salient, but it was characterised by two outstanding facts—

(1) The Germans attacked with smaller forces and noticeably less vigour. (2) The Russian defences developed a tremendous come-back, as exemplified by the Russian Guards at' Byelgorod recapturing their original lines. The latest Russian communique says that fierce fighting continued in the Byelgorod direction yesterday. Soviet units in some pressed back the Germans who had driven a wedge into the Russian positions. The enemy did not attempt any major operations in the Orel-Kursk direction.'

Reuter's adds that the battle for, Kursk has hot yet been decided, but unless General von Kluge is able to produce a military white rabbit from Hitler's battered top hat it looks as though Dr Goebbels had a sound intuition when he pretended that the German offensive was not an offensive at all.

The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says the Germans are switching fresh reserves of ground forces and planes to the Byelgorod front in an effort to achieve a breakthrough after their failure on the OrelKursk sector. Big forces are being thrown in to develop the wedge which the Germans at the week-end forced in the (Russian Byelgorod positions, and the Russians have taken up defensive positions to prevent this. The Germans at Byelgorod are delivering continuous sharp tank attacks, but even these have so far failed to gain any ground. The Stockholm correspondent of ' The Times ' says that what news there is available from the Byelgorod front suggests that "the Germans have been unable to deepen or widen their wedge since July 9.