RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 April 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

GERMAN ATTACKS HELD

(Recd. 1.55 p.m.) LONDON, April 7. The Germans are far from slackening their efforts' to dislodge the Russians from the Donetz bridgeheads before the Red Army has time to regroup for a counter-attack. Datest reports show that the Germans in the second week’s stubborn effort are again using large panzer forces, alter experimenting with smaller attacks with mixed panzer and mlantry units. Large formations ol the Luftwaffe are also being thrown into the battle for the bridgeheads, particularly ui the Izyum area, where the Red Air Force is constantly engaged beating off air attacks. The Germans ar Q finding the Russian hill positions at "the entrance to Izyum hard nuts to crack, and the enemy is no nearer than when he started the attack *ast Sunday. „ . . ~ The Germans, in a series ol bitterly fought battles in the last jour days, have lost nearly 3,000 killed and at least 40 tanks. Moscow correspondents agree that the Russians in the Middle and Upper Donetz, despite heavier German assaults, are holding their ground everywhere, although the battle is spreading southwards from Izyum to Chuguyev. ' ‘The Times’s” Moscow correspondent says that the battle for Izyum is a battle of armour against artillery, in which wave upon wave of infantrymen are being held up by a resolute Russian force, strongly entrenched. The Germans’ chief advantage is that they have dry land behind them, whereas the defenders are backed by the swollen Donetz. Reuter’s correspondent says that the heavy concentration of enemy planes behind the Kharkov-Izyum-Taganrog front and the unflagging movement of German troops from the rear suggest that the Germans expect large-scale fighting on this sector. Fighting in the Kuban is still fierce as the Russians attempt to drive the enemy from his last positions in the Caucasus. The German News Agency has admitted that several Soviet groups had breached the end of the Kuban bridgehead. Reuter reports ■that the Russians have wrested another point from the Germans and have advanced a step nearer the Kerch Straits. The great Caspian-Volga oil route has been re-opened and the first fleet of tankers from Baku has arrived at Astrakhan with tens of thousands of tons of aviation, tractor and industrial oil. The fleet arrived before the official opening of the navigation season alter battling its way through giant ice floes in the south Caspian, 'and made the voyage in the record time of four days.

GERMANS MAY USE GAS.

LONDON. April 7. A report received in Zurich from the German capital stated: There has been a mysterious forecast by Colonel Dietmar, the German radio military expert. It caused general belief in Berlin, that gas war is coming this Summer. Colonel Dietmar said: “After our experiences in Winter battle, Germany will apply means of warfare no longer connected with the production race in weapons and munitions. No concentration of troops will be able to withstand this means of warfare. The vast stretches of Russian territory demand from Germany the conduct of war under exceptional laws.”