BIG TANK BATTLES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20827, 4 July 1942, Page 3

BIG TANK BATTLES

NAZI OFFENSIVES ASSAULTS _ REPULSED BULGE TOWARDS MOSCOW (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (11a.m.) LONDON, July 3. According to the latest dispatches from Sebastopol, strongly reinforced enemy units have broken into regions of the city itself and the main forces are closing in. The Germans, after claiming the fall of Sebastopol on Tuesday, admit that the Russians are defending every trench outpost., Fighting has been revived in the Kharkov area. The Germans are blasting ,a narrow sector. The Russians claim that all the assaults were repulsed and that the enemy losses

were enormous because of the narrow, ness of the front. Over 1000 Germans were killed and 36 tanks destroyed. in one day. The Times Stockholm correspondent raises the question of whether the lighting at Gjatsk indicates a new German offensive against Moscow. The Germans at Gjatsk will meet a new separate Red Army group under General Anukov, acting independently of the Ukraine, and not seriously engaged since the winter. The Russian positions northwards and southwards between the Smolensk-Viazma bottleneck have not receded much, if anything at all, but the Germans, based on the railway, which facilitated operations, elbowed the Russians outwards, converting the large Viazma-Gjatsk-Rjev sack into something more resembling a deep bulge towards Moscow. which is an advantageous salient for a new offensive against Moscow. Last night’s Soviet communique says that on the Kursk front, the Russian troops waged big tank battles with the enemy during the whole day. On tne Byelgorod and Volchansk , fronts, fierce fighting started with attacking German troops on the Sebastopol front, the Soviet troops waged stubborn hand-to-hand fighting in the suburbs of the town. On other sectors of the front no important changes occurred. -