GAINS IN CAUCASUS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 April 1943, Page 6

GAINS IN CAUCASUS

RUSSIANS NEARER COAST

BIG OFFENSIVE PREPARED LONDON, April 4.

Saturday’s Moscow communique says: “No material changes occurred. On the central front the Russians consolidated their positions, destroying JI blockhouses. South of Izyum the Russians fought defensively, defeating in one sector a motorised infantry regiment supported by 20 tanks. Russian tanks in the Byelgorod sector, by surprise crashed into German positions on the northern Donetz, forcing the enemy to retreat and capturing a ferry, which they held until the arrival of reinforcements. The Russians m the Kuban continued to advance, occupying a village.” The Kuban territory is rapidly drying out under strong sunshine, according to a Moscow message. Soviet troops are becoming more active. They have reached a new German defence line and driven in wedges, which they are methodically widening, in spite of enemy counter-attacks. Air battles continue favourably for the Red- Air Force, which has brought down nine German aeroplanes in eight dog-fights lor the loss of one machine. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent says it is reported without confirmation that General Masslennikov s troops are already at the eastern approaches of Novorossiisk, in pursuance of their aim of cutting the German bridgehead in two. The Germans ,on the 30 miles wide strip between Novorossiisk and the Kuban river are now facing three Russian columns converging on the last remaining strongholds. A Russian force since last Autumn has grimly held on to a group of cement factories in the suburbs of Novorossiisk, only waiting for reinforcements to make this point play an extremely important part in the recapture of the city. The Kuban country is the only sector on the Russian front where the fighting to-day reached any intensity. The German bridgehead on the Taman Peninsula now consists of only a strip of mainland 40 miles broad and 15 miles deep. The Russians are steadily closing the ring round the remaining Germans in the Kuban area. The two main roads of this desolate Kuban region run through Anastasievskaya. The Red Army is now able to move down a reasonably good road to the Kuban river, with prospects of endangering the Germans on the north bank of the river. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow states that the Red Army is clearly on the move, and is beginning to squeeze the Germans nearer the sea. GERMAN COMMENT The Berlin radio commentator. Captain Sertorius, declared: . “The Russians undoubtedly consider it dangerous to allow the Germans to continue to hold Novorossiisk. They want to eliminate it as quickly as possible. Therefore, the concentration of major Russian forces in the Krasnodar area and further north, which has been observed in the last few days, is possibly the prelude to a big offensive. German bombers in the last few days nave been giving their attention not onlv to Krasnodar but to important ''unctions on the main trans-Caucasus line.” , , j, The Stockholm correspondent ot “The Times” reports that the enemy has plentiful supplies of men and material in the Crimea, and as long as the Axis bridgehead is not divided and separated from the coast these can be transported. fairly easily across the Kerch Straits and the Sea of Azov. “The Times” adds: “The Germans in the Kuban arc already frequently launching determined counter-attacks in order to delay, if not prevent, Russian compression ol the Taman Peninsula bridgehead or its division into two parts. It is a c'liestion of which side can divert the ’arrter forces to gain supremacy of the Kuban.” DONETZ FRONT LONDON, April 4. Reuter’s correspondent says a fresh German attack on Russian bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donetz River, near Izyum, was smashed. Outlining the fighting on Ihe Donetz front, “The Thues” states: “The Russians yesterday appeared to have had the best of the fighting for the bridgehead. The fighting was less intense, but it is likely again to flare up any day.” The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press states that the Germans are rushing up immense reserves of men and material to the Ukraine front, and the dense network of railways and roads in the Germans’ rear is teeming with traffic. The German High Command is regrouping as fast as possible. The only region between the upper Donetz and the central front reporting any activity stronger than patrols is west of the Kursk-Orel sector, in the Dmitriev-Sievsk districts, where each side is tying to improve its positions. The Berlin radio reports a new outburst of fury in the Leningrad area, declaring that the Russians south of Lake Ladoga are attacking in wave after wave in an effort to clear the Germans from a stretch of the Moscow-Leningrad railway, and also to widen the land passage to Leningrad. GERMAN LOSSES LONDON, April 4. The results of the Russian Winter campaign up to March 31 are summed up in a special communique from Moscow, which states that 850,000 Germans have been killed and 343,525 taken prisoner, making a total of 1,200,000 casualties all told. In the Red Army advance 5090 aircraft were destroyed, 9190 tanks destroyed or captured, and 20,360 guns have fallen into Red Army hands. In less than five months the Russian forces have recaptured nearly 200,000 square miles of country and have pushed the enemy back 400 miles.

FRONTS OUTLINED

RUGBY, April 3

Details of a Soviet information bureau map, showing the Russian' line as il, was on March 31, are given in a Moscow message. The front line runs from the southern outskirts of Leningrad to a point on the Novgorod railway 80 miles north-north-west of Novgorod, ft then turns upwards to a point eight miles south of Schluesselburg. It runs eight miles due east, 10 miles south-south-east, six miles west, four miles south-west, and four miles south, and then winds eastwards round Kirisha. From the fringes of Kirisha the front runs south-south-west and cuts the Moscow-Leningrad railway six miles to tne south-south-east of Chudovo. It bulges westwards for 16 miles, and then goes due south oast the walls of Novgorod to Lake Ilmen. From the middle of the south shore of Lake Ilmen the front runs south round the fringes of Staraya Russa, and then goes south-west to a point nine miles west of Velikye Luki. It curves eastwards to the northern fringe of Velizh, runs east-south-east and cuts the Vyazma-Smolensk railway 24 miles east-north-east of Yartsevo. The nearest point to Yartsevo lies north-north-east at a distance of about eight miles. From the Vyazma-Smolensk railway the front runs south-south-east to a point 60 miles east-south-east of Smolensk, after which it turns sharply east, and cuts the SukhinnichiSmolensk railway about 130 miles due west of Tula. It then bulges west-

ward round the west fringe of Kirov. From Kirov the line runs southeast to the eastern fringe of Mtsensk, and deviates more sharply to a point about 40 mites due east of Orel, and then turns south-west to the KurskOrel railway. The front runs due west 24 miles, and then turns eight miles west-north-west and then west-south-west to the eastern outskirts of Sievsk. From Sievsk the line runs south-south-east past the eastern outskirts of Ryhsy, and then, with a more easterly deviation, to a point 6 miles east-south-east of Sumv, after which it runs 66 miles due east to the Kursk-Kharkov railway. It then turns south past the east fringe of Byelgorod. The Red Army holds the whole of ths east bank of the Donetz to a point about 30 miles east of Kharkov, and has an important hold on the west bank in the elbow north-west of Izyum, which is still in Russian hands. The front follows a line from the Donetz to a point 16 miles northwest of Voroshilovgrad, after which it runs more or less regularly south to the Sea of Azov, eight miles east of Taganrog. From there the Red Army holds the whole of the Azov coast to a point eight miles northeast of Temruyk, from which the line runs almost to the Kuban River, and then due east parallel with the nyer. The front intersects the Kuban River 50 miles west of Krasnodar, turns south-westward to a point 20 miles east-north-east of Novorossiisk, and then runs due west 10 mites. From there the front runs 10 miles southwest, and terminates on the eastern outskirts of Novorossiisk.