PRESSING ON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21066, 10 April 1943, Page 3

PRESSING ON

CAUCASUS DRIVE AXIS PUSH"CHECKED BATTLE OF THE DONETZ (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, March o The Russians in the Kuban region are slowly but inexorably pushing the Germans towards the sea. The Russian encirclement .tactics threaten to isolate many of the German garrisons. Because of their strength, which is offset by the precariousness of their communications in the waterlogged Kuban delta, the Germans are having to fight strenuously to protect their narrow strips above water. The Russians in the last few days have taken several villages connected with the mainland only by strips of land. On the Donetz River front, the Germans have temporarily halted their main attacks, but both sides are probing for weak spots. The German command, from Byelgorod to Izyum, is regrouping its forces ready for new attacks against the Russian bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donetz, says Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow, but the German chances of forcing the river, unless they launch a full-scale offensive, are dwindling daily because the ice over the Donetz is disappearing and the Donetz is rising. Flooded rivers throughout Russia are making a big advance at present impossible. Heavy German Losses The Soviet successes at Izyum will compel the Germans to consider the possibility of a Russian summer offensive, says the Columbia Broadcasting System’s Moscow correspondent. The Germans yesterday, after launching attacks for five days, ceased to attempt to force a crossing at Izyum. The German losses included 2500 dead, 27 tanks, and 20 guns. Isolated exchanges of artillery fire in the Sevsk area was the only activity on the central front. The Russians report that the Germans are extensively using a tank type of mobile 75 m.m. gun against the Russian artillery. The gun is mounted on a 22-ton truck with a speed of 30 miles an hour and a range of 90 miles. The Berlin radio’s commentator, Captain Sertorius, says that the length of the present lull on the eastern front cannot be predicted, because the weather at present is subject to unusual fluctuations. However, the duration of the pause is not only dependent on the weather, but also on the length of time either opponent takes to completely regroup its forces.