GERMAN PLANS WRECKED

Grey River Argus, 2 May 1942, Page 5

GERMAN PLANS WRECKED

FOR SPRING OFFENSIVE Says Soviet General [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Rec 8.55). KUIBYSHEV, April 30. Maior-General Zakharov, in an article in the Moscow “Red Star," qnvs- The Russians, by persistent "Hacks on the Kalinin front, have c 0 confused the enemy that they have wrecked his plans for the offensive. This does not mean "that the Germans will not try to utilise the slightest opportunity to ceize the initiative. They are now hrinping un their reserves in an attempt to take advantage of more favourable weather. But there -S an essential difference between the nd vantage which the Germans gained b’r a sudden assault last June, end the advantage which the Russians have gained by their counterd"ive. We have wedged ourselves into the enemy’s disposition, and have disorganised his staff work, and the spring has scarcely altered things as far as the Germans are concerned. LONDON, April 30.

The latest Soviet communique again reports no change on the Russian front. i “The Times’s” Stockholm pondent says:—There are almost intolerable quagmire conditions on tne Leningrad front. These are exacting greater casualties .on both sides dauj than the average from the actua; fighting during the severest Winter period. Activity in the Salla sector is still lively. A series of Russian attacks, begun last week against combined German-Finnish forces; was cfmtinued despite the Spr.ng, and despite the Finns’ claim to be holding the Russians. Patrols continue active on firmer ground between the Svir marshes and the Karelian Isthmus. German air casualties this week increased daily, apparently noi because of the increase in the number of bombers employed, bui through inadequate fighter protection. , . Russians on the Svir River front made a bayonet charge and drove the Finns from an inhabited place. Soviet reports of yesterday’s fighting mention an unsuccessful German attack on the central front, where, in the past two days, 1300 of the enemy are stated to have been killed. One Russian rifle division oi the north-western front, in the pas three months, killed 10.000 of the enemy, and captured, among othe> material, 70 field guns A Jarman armoured tram, named Adolf Hitiei, was derailed and blown up by guerrillas in the Ukraine, where sabotage has frustrated German attempts <.c restart industrial plants and coal mines. One group recently attacked the headquarters .of a large Geiman unit, and seized important documents. The membership of this group has doubled in April. Moscow radio reports that guerrillas in the Orel area captured the whole town, which they are holding against all counter-attacks. The guerrillas at first blew up the railway and telephones at each end ol the town to prevent reinforcements reaching the garrison of 600, which they completely wiped out. ine guerrillas then tackled an approaching German detachment, killing 301 out o£ 400. The population of the town is now resuming normal nfe. Moscow radio said Soviet guards in two days on the central front wiped out'about 1000 German officers and men. Moscow “Pravada” reports the Germans lost 35,000 men in killed and wounded in their assaults on Sebastopol, in the Crimea during December. A Soviet supplementary report stated that in an attack by German forces on the central front, the Germans lost 300 officers and men killed and failed to take their objective. On the Kalinin front, northwest of Moscow, a Soviet unit captured a German post and killed 150 of the defenders. The Berlin radio admitted that the Russians had repulsed a German attack on the Kalinin front with the loss of 11 German tanks and two guns. Moscow radio reported the German sth Division, known as the Spring Division, had been ordered to the front, and within 12 hours of its arrival several- of its regiments suffered heavy losses.

At Kuibyshev a United States envoy, Admiral Standley said: “As far as I know, we are pretty well up to our commitments to Russia, the flow of supplies recovered after a temporary falling off the result of the outbreak of the Pacific war, I am sure Russian leaders realise Americans are making every effort to keep up the commitments, and even to exceed them.”