TZ FRONT

Grey River Argus, 29 June 1943, Page 4

TZ FRONT

warfare AIR-ACTIVITY RUGBY, June 27. communique stated: A of 211 German planes were shot > down last ’week for the loss of 74 Russian aircraft. Soviet airmen on Saturday sank an enemy submarine ,'in the Black Sea. There have be-in local activities in various sectors, Main’y these were reconnaissance'? I,;i one sector of the Kalinin front' a Soviet detachment recently occupied an inhabited locality. The enemy unsuccessfully counter-attacked six times in one day, but were forced back, losing about 406 officers and men. The Red Air Force, without loss to itself, bombed Orel railway junction and aerodrome at Orel and other ' places on. Saturday night. LONDON, June 27. Russian artillery last night broke up enemy troop concentrations in tne Balakleya area of the Donetz. Shelling caused heavy losses among German infantry, tanks and transport. German'infan try had attempted to cross the Donetz in this area the previous night. Stabilisation of the Russian-Ger-man front on the long stretches of the northern Donetz River has created a situation of border warfare, with incidents reminiscent of old tales of frontier fighting between the Cossacks and Tartar tribesmen, or Terek or Croat defenders of the Danubian marshes against the Turks. Russians and Germans, each using ingenious ruses, pass scouts through the other’s lines.

“Pravda”! reports (that ;the Germans are donning skirts covering heads and shoulders with shawls, and proceeding down to the river with buckets. Russians, where the Donetz is sufficiently narrow, have been throwing grenades against these sham peasants. Russians are busy scouting the right bank for information for their artillery. Recent films have shown some of the tricks used. For instance, Tadjik soldiers are drifting downstream, under inflated sheepskins, with all but their eyes submerged. There are occasional brisk mortar and machine-gun exchanges and light artillery duels. There are sometimes more serious engagements, when the enemy tries to force the river with one or two battalions, supported by tanks, but the front has recently been very quiet. Russian activity at Byelgorod, 50 miles north-east of Kharkov, is reported in a Moscow communique. A Russian infantry battalion penetrated the German' defences and took a strongpoint west of Byelgorod. Although Byelgorod remains in German hands the Russian penetration is described as important. On the Kalinin on Friday the Russians three German, counter-attacks, losing about 600 men. West of Rostov, Soviet airmen destroyed six German aeroplanes in combat. The Moscow radio announced that a German broadcast on Thursday to the effect that the Germans attacked in the area south of Lake Ilmen and captured strongholds and prisoners did not contain a single word of truth. There had been no fighting on that sector for several - weeks. \ / German raiders attempted to bohjb the Leningrad area, stated a Russiain communique. Russian fighters headed the Germans off when they' tried to raid two towns near Twelve enemy machines were shou down either in air combat or by ,anti-| aircraft fire. The Russians lost five! machines. ' y A special Moscow communique re/ ported that many German aera’planes were destroyed or damaged in Thursday’s Russian raids. Among the targets attacked were railways behind the Smolensk front and a Tail- t way station which serves the Orel sector. Trains and ammunition dumps were blown up. To-day’s Finnish communique states: After heavy artillery preparation on June 26, Russians attacked .a strongpoint near Rukajervi, which the Finns, after strong resistance, abandoned. Finnish troops on the morning of June 27, counterattacked and recaptured this strongpoint. Russian attacks on the Karelian Isthmus were beaten off. Red Army force south of Velikye Luki broke into the main German defence lines. The enemy was able to force a breakthrough but a counter-attack sealed off the breach. The Red Army has been filling in the three months’ lull concentrating on a new type of defence to hold any attempted German breakthrough. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians devised special tank traps intended to the Germans’ much vaunted ne« tiger type. M With the drawing to a close the week military experts the opinion that the thev mean business in RussijHHH 1943, must get started, There are still no signs of mans risking getting their volved in a full-scale The only land movement sigificance is the fiare-up in MHHhB around Mtsensk and wards and southwards of tjMUHH bulge. The Russians Mtsensk broke into 1 thU and captured mater/ gunners in the SevSi.,.% the German battalion and destroyed an wav bridge. “The Times s Stockholm pondent says: Marshal MannerWMß refused a German demand that a talion of the Finnish Waften S.S. vow unteers, which recently returned Finland after two years’ service or« the eastern front, should be sent tol North Finland to fight under the command of Dietl, whose troops hold the Murmansk sector. The Finns countered the proposal by incorporating the battalion into the Finnish Army. Dietl’s troops total about 150,000, lor which reason an additional Finnish battalion .could not be of military importance. The German move is tmis interpreted as aimed at tying h inland 1 closer. '■ Mannerheim , further, recently prohibited the visit, of a party of German journalists to ine Karelian front. Despite these signs that the Finns are trying to avoid deepening their entanglement ( with the Germans, there is no sign or tali: of a separate peace. SWORD FOR STALINGRAD. ■LONDON, June 25. The sword of honour which the King is giving Stalingrad is now being made. It will be a two-handed sword, four feet long, with a' broad and convex blade ot the hai dest tempered steel, sharp at both edges, ft to be used in battle. On the centre of the blade is inscribed: ‘To tne steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad, the gift of King George VI, m token of the homage of the British people. The Russian version will be on the other side. The scabbard is of crimson Persian lambskin, ornamented with the Royal arms, crown, and svnher in silver, with four red enamel stars Gold and crimson twine bound round the grip, the pommel is of rock crystal.