GRAVE FOR GERMANY

Evening Star, Issue 24919, 17 July 1943, Page 5

GRAVE FOR GERMANY

ANOTHER STALIK6RAD LOdS FURIOUS ATTACKS PROVE FUTILE (Ree. S a.m.) LONDON, July 16. . The Germans have not abandoned their attempt to break through in the JJyelgorod area, and are flying up more men by transport planes. .More panzers are racing to the front. All German attempts to enlarge the Byelgorod wedge have tailed hi tlie last si hours.

Router's Moscow correspondent says ' Red Star ' states that a Russian tank division in the spearhead of the advance north of Orel" is hotly pursuing the retreating Germans. Observers arc beginning to take an optimistic line on current Russian operations. The . Berlin military spokesman, according to correspondents of Swiss newspapers, takes a grave view of the situation. The British 'United Press Moscow correspondent eays, besides their own planes and tanks, the Russians on the central front are believed to have a concentration of British and American machines, hitherto little used. They fought off the German offensive and out-manoeuvred the enemy in a manner recalling the Stalingrad tactics. . Foreign observers in Moscow believe that the veterans of'Stalingrad battles are in command on this front, and that before the campaign ends the Russians may have another Stalingrad to their credit.

,The Vichy radio says the Rufsian attack north" of Orel is frankly- describable as an offensive. Marshal Timoshenko, who is in command, is employing eight to nine infantry divisions, several tank brigades, and strong artillery forces.. Swiss newspapers say the Berlin spokesman said the Russians had been able to deploy greater reserves. They were forever throwing in entirely fresh divisions from an inexhaustible reservoir of offensive troops. > The German High Command how admits that the Russians ar,e strongly attacking between Byelev and Sukhinichi, besides maintaining pressure on the Orel sector. -

Reuter's Moscow correspondent says Soviet mobile units have reached a point five or six miles from Sorokino, on the Bryansk-Orel railway, 26 miles north-west of Orel. The Red army drive in the Shisdra region is continuing with great elan. The Red army north of Orel is widening the breach, overcoming many water barriers, and bitter enemy resistance. The Russians in one sector have established 20 bridgeheads across a wide river, and continue to cross in force. The Germans, in a desperate effort to stem the thrust, have shifted several divisions from Orel and Kursk. Despite the unfavourable weather, fierce air battles are raging over the breach.