RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

Grey River Argus, 31 March 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

ACTION IN CAUCASUS Conditions Improve ATTACK ON GERMAN BRIDGEHEAD. [Aust. & N.Z. (Rec. 7.20) LONDON, March 2J. The interest in Russia is now snittin>' to the southern part of the front where the mud is now drying up. “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says that with conditions on die Taman Peninsula improving daily. General Maslennikov’s operations to expel the German remnants clinging to the bridgehead are developing apace. The Russians are now threatening the Temryuk-Krymskya road which is the Axis lifeline to the Crimea. Desperate fighting is inevitable before Russians will be able to drive home a thrust which wifi probably split the Germans, pinning them against the sea at Novorossisk and Temryuk. This is apparently planned because the Russian strategy requires the elimination ot the bridgehead before the summer campaign is launched, J The Russians are not likely to undertake a heavy offensive m the Donetz Basin where the Germans are strong with good communications. The'Russian thrust on the north shore of the Sea of Azov will have better prospects if combined with an offensive from Kursk. Elsewhere the Russians present and impending activity can be regarded as maintaining local ascendancy and; preventing the .initiative slipping to the enemy.

German Air Attacks many bombers destroyed. LOCAL ACTIONS ON MANY SECTORS' LONDON, March 29. To-dav’s Soviet communique reports no significant change on . a Q n / part of the Russian front. Local actions continue on many sectors, ine communique reports that in a rugnt attack in an unidentified area Russian troops occupied a village and killed 100 of the enemy in hand-to-hand fighting. In another area a Soviet patrol behind the enemy lines surprised a German infantry column and practically wiped it out. South of Byelyi Soviet forces destroyed a German attacking column and occupied three villages. On the Donetz front the Germans are still trying to cross the river, but the Russians report the smashing of all attacks. In the last tew days the Germans have been making heavy air attacks on Russian bases and concentrations near the front line, but the Red Air Force has destroyed many of the attackers. Fifty German bombers have been brought down in the last few days.

Drive Towards Smolensk GAINS IN LOCAL FIGHTING. LONDON, March 29. T'he Spring thaw has caused a lull in large-scale operations on almost the entire Russian front, although the Russians driving towards Smolensk continue to achieve gains in local fighting. Showers, alternating with cold snaps, aie lapidlj transforming the Smolensk area into a sea of mud, holding up all transport Moscow correspondents suggest‘that fighting battlt is unlikely for weeks. The batt for the Donetz crossings has almost died down, leaving the Russians firmly entrenched on the east bank, and also holding several bridgeheads on the west bank. ... Spring follows rapidly the- swelling of the Northern Donetz, which will be an increasingly difficult barrier for some time. The chief German activity is west of Rostov and the Lower Kuban, where the Luftwaffe is repeatedly attempting to bomb Russian communications with iiontline towns. This is interpreted in Moscow as heralding a drive to the Caucasus. The Red Air Force is vigorously opposing the Luitwaite, which has mostly failed to reach its objectives, losing 47 ’planes in four davs on the Rostov front. . Commenting on the general quietude, Berlin radio’s commentator, Captain Sertorius, says the only fighting of more than local significance is about Lake Ladoga and southward of Lake Ilmen, which the Russians don’t mention. Captain Sertorius said the Russian attacks on Staraya Russa and Lake Ladoga aim at loosening the German grip on Leningrad, because after the thaw, Lake Ladoga cannot be used as a supply route to Leningrad, and the Russians hold no big railway lines to the city. The Germans have beaten off strong attacks after'seven, days’ fighting. Captain Sertorius added that the Germans, making full use of the lull, have already completely re-equipped their panzer and mechanised units, which participated in the Donetz counter-offensive, also the bulk of the infantry divisions. “The whole of the reserve armies are being built up and communications to the front are being improved, enabling the rapid supply of new and effective arms, including Tiger tanks.”