FIGHTING FOR KERCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1942, Page 5

FIGHTING FOR KERCH

GERMANS CLAIM VICTORY RUSSIAN DENIAL LONDON, May 13. The latest Soviet communique gives no new information about the fighting on the Kerch Peninsula, in the Crimea. It says: “During last night nothing of importance took place on any part of the front.” The German High Command has issued a statement on the Kerch Peninsula fighting, going so far as to claim that the battle has been decided. It claims that the battle ended in the annihilation of the Russian forces. Last night’s Soviet communique reported that the Russian forces were continuing to resist the German attackers on the peninsula, where a stubborn battle was being fought. A Vichy News Agency dispatch from the Crimea says: “The Germans opened the Kerch Peninsula offensive with a night landing on the shore of the Gulf of Theodosia, behind the Russian lines, seizing a strip of land stretching from the Black Sea coast to the south side of Lake Übandar. On the night'of May 10 German and Rumanian troops broke through the Russian defences, reaching the outskirts of Marienthal on May 11 and the coast of the Sea of Azov at dawn on May 12, afterwards advancing along the Gulf of Arabat as far as Ojuspete. The night landing was made from specially armed steel barges, protected by motor torpedo-boats carrying cannon and light machine-guns. Throughout the following night reinforcements were landed on either side of the bridgehead, parallel with the road. Anti-tank obstacles extending to a great depth held up the Axis tanks for a time, but by the night of May 10 the enemy’s defences were broken and the main forces had joined up with the landing parties.”

NOT MAIN OFFENSIVE

RUGBY, May 13

After five days’ assault with masses of dive-bombers and tanks, no definite news of important German , progress in the Peninsula of Kerch is reported from Allied sources. London military opinion is that this is not the beginning of the main offensive, but as the Germans themselves indicate, only a preliminary operation. The fact remains that the longawaited resumption of operations has begun as expected in the extreme south, where the ground is now dry, while on most of the front, the thaw still keeps both armies immobile. The Russians, at the end of last year, recaptured Kerch and the Peninsula to nearly fifty miles west of the town. Since then, their line has run across the isthmus at the narrowest point, where it is about fifteen miles across. Between there and Kerch, however, it widens to some thirty miles. The present attack is generally regarded as an isolated operation aimed at ejecting the Russians once more from Eastern Crimea. Nevertheless, its importance in connection with probable later offensive with the Ukraine is obvious. The German Eleventh Army attacking in the Crimea is commanded by von Manstein, who is considered one of the most brilliant and formidable of Hitler’s generals. He was Chief of Staff to Rundstedt in the Polish campaign, commanded the Thirty-eighth Army Corps in France and Russia, and succeeded to his present command in September, on the death of General Probert.

RUSSIANS HAVE TO RETREAT. RUGBY, May 13. The latest news of the lighting in Kerch Peninsula is given by the overnight Russian communique which says: On May 13, our troops on the Kerch Peninsula, in view of enemy superiority, retreated to new positions. The German High Command announcement that the battle has been decided in the Germans’ favour, and that the -Germans captured a great number of prisoners and tanks, is false. Our troops are retreating in good order and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. Dealing with other sectors of the front, the communique adds: In the Kharkov sector, our troops took up the offensive and advanced. Nothing important to report elsewhere. On May 12, 43 German planes were destroyed. We lost 17. In the Barents Sea, one of our Naval units sank an enemy transport of 12,000 tons. GERMAN~CAPTURES. (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) (Recd. 2.20 p.m.) LONDON, May 13. A German High Command communique claims that, with the breakthrough on the Kerch Peninsula, the Battle of the Isthmus has ended with the destruction or the enemy, who have been overrun and encircled. The communique adds that, so .far, 40,000 prisoners, 197 tanks, 598 guns and 260 aeroplanes have been captured.

Unofficial reports from Moscow state that the Red Army is confident the offensive will be defeated, and the outcome may be apparent in a lew days. GERMANS USE NERVE GAS. (Rec. 2.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 13. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm “Nyadagligt Allehanda,” who has been expelled from Germany, “because he sent news without foundation,” says that the Gormans are using nerve gas on the Kerch Peninsula. Nerve gas does not cause bodily harm, but stuns soldiers, who wake up as prisoners. Berlin circles claim that the new weapon is a “boundary case” in the use of gas. The Vichy radio says that nerve gas achieved a complete surprise on the Kerch Peninsula. The radio adds it is reported from Bucharest that German chemists have arrived from the great chemical combine, I. G. Farben, to produce poison gases for use in Russia. Only German and Rumanian workers are employed on the “secret invisible weapon.”

A Berne report says that strong German forces appear to have launched an attack in the Ukraine, along a line running west from Taganrog northward to Stalino and Petropavlovka, thence westward to Knepropetrovsk, but the only progress is in the neighbourhood of Petropavlovka. Losses on both sides are heavy. “Red Star” says that the Russians, in heavy fighting on sectors of the Kalinin front, have driven the Germans from a number of fortified hills. GERMAN CHEMICALS (Recd. Noon) LONDON, May 13. Germany, whose chemical industry has uncontested world leadership, is now ready, announced the Berlin radio. Germany has always aimed at the chivalrous conduct of the war, but England, by opening the blockade against German women and children, compelled Germany to begin total economic war. England also started the air war against peaceful German towns and villages.