STILL CRITICAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21051, 24 March 1943, Page 3

STILL CRITICAL

SOVIET SITUATION AXIS THRUSTS FLAG LULL IN THF; SOUTH (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, March 22. Although the Russian conquests south of Kursk are imperilled by the German thrusts in the middle Donetz, where the situation in some sectors is regarded as critical, dispatches from .Moscow indicate a slackening of the German thrusts, which correspondents attribute to a stiffening of the llussian resistance and to General von Mansfein feeling the strain of his losses. The fact that the Germans are now using small tank groups for inlilt'iation instead of massive columns may. also be due to attrition. On the contrary, the Merlin radio commentators to-night emphasise the quietude of the southern wing, which the German News Agency ascribes to the need for regrouping after the tank and motorised formations’ forced marches across bad roads due to the thaw. The news agency added that the German operations had now been in progress for live weeks and that local halts are essential during such a large-scale offensive. The most significant present feature is the lull between Taganrog and byelgorod and also in the territory the Germans won south-west and north-west of Kursk. Kurch Endangered General Dictmar, broadcasting what he claimed to be a “Winter battle epilogue,” asserted: “The battle still raging in some areas is the last act of a successful counter-offensive which reached a climax in the rcconquest of Kharkov and the sealing off of the most dangerous breach in the German lines.” The lighting was ending, he said, because the thaw and mud enforced a lull. The Berlin radio said the centre of gravity had shifted south-westward of Viuzma, south of Lake Ladoga, and south-east of Leningrad. It is in these regions 'where the Russians are still pushing on, even if slowed up by the terrain, which consists of swampy wooden plains intersected by rivers and unfavourable for the deployment of big forces. The British United Press’ Moscow correspondent says that the position of the Russians in the Ukraine has deteriorated considerably with the loss of Byelgorod. Kursk is now seriously endangered. Waves of German tanks and armoured units are attacking incessantly at single points in tiie middle Donetz, which the Germans crossed at several places in the lsyuni area. The Russians are on the defensive at Briansk and in the Donetz basin and their communications are becoming worse while those of the Germans are improving. Smolensk Drive Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the German offensive in the Donetz front is still gathering strength. The heaviest pressure is still against the Chuguyev bridgehead and in the Byelgorod area. The German command is doing everything it can to break through the Russian defences at Chuguyev, a move .. .ch, if successful, would ihreaten the right flank and even the rear of the Russian forces from Voroshilovgrad to Rostov. The Associated Press, however, reports that the Russians at Chuguyev have strongly resisted several largescale German attempts to cross the Donetz. The Pravda reported that several settlements in this area were continuously changing hands as the Red Army stiffened its resistance. The British United Press says that the German attack in the Shisdra area, north-east of Briansk, aimed at checking the Russian columns advancing towards Briansk from the north, but the Russians continue driving towards Smolensk from the north and cast. Their spearheads are at present 50 miles apart. Marshal Timoshenko is still pressing attacks aiming at Staraya Russa, while far to the south, in the, Caucasus, General Maslennikov’s army, despite the mud, resumed the attempt to drive the Germans across the Kerch Straits to the Crimea. The Germans have thrown in many planes. The Russians are steadily bombing communications between the Kuban pocket and the Crimea. Activity at Leningrad Paying attention to the German references to important fighting ■in the vicinity of Leningrad, Schlusselburg, and the Finnish Gulf, The Times’ Stockholm correspondent recalls the German failure last year to take Oranienbauin, 25 miles west of Leningrad on the southern shore of the Finnish Gulf, which is beleaguered by land but has sea communications open to Leningrad. The Germans expect the Russians to make a strong effort to press from Leningrad along site coast, aiming at freeing the Baltic fleet’s passage from Kronstadt and also to cci-operate in the Lake Ilmen operations. If both drives are pressed * home .north way cl of Lake Peipus, it would entrap the Germans north of Lake Ilmen. Experts in Berlin are uncertain whether the Russian activity at Leningrad is part of this operation or a preliminary probing to improve the position for a real summer offensive. Marshal Timoshenko’s drive southward .of Lake Ilmen, despite the weight, is regarded as a preliminary rather than a major operation. One of the most important features is that the Russians are preparing for large-scale summer offensives which the Germans hitherto have regarded as their own monopoly. The German •nixety is betrayed by the elaborate defences they are building far behind the lines in the Baltic States and White Russia, indicating that the Germans envision a possible retreat.i A Finnish communique reports that the Russian Air Force last night twice attacked Helsinki but that the damage was slight.