TREMENDOUS CASUALTIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 5

TREMENDOUS CASUALTIES

MORE NAZI REINFORCEMENTS. LONDON, March 25. In addition to the 33 divisions which the Germans since January have transferred to various sectors of the Russian front, large Luftwaffe reinforcements have reached Russia, including transport planes reported to be from the African theatre, says the Times' Moscow correspondent. The inforccd German resistance is most stubborn everywhere except at Staraya Russa, where operations appear to be approaching a conclusion. Elsewhere the fighting is fierce and bloody with both sides suffering heavy losses. A competent Russian observer describes the present fighting as being as tough as any throughout the war. The Russians' primary object throughout the winter has been to deny the Germans the opportunity to recuperate, rather than the occupation of territory. The Russians achieved this objective by shrewdly placing constant blows rather than blindly flinging in masses. The Russian offensive must be paid for and Russia to-day needs every tank and aeroplane that can bo delivered. British deliveries after lagging earlier arc now on schedule and numbers of English lorries are seen in Moscow. The weather on the Russian front has distinctly begun to break. Frosts are now a rarity anywhere on the front and rotten snow in hampering the mobility of vehicles, says the Times' Stockholm correspondent. German spokesmen ill conceal the hope that the real thaw is beginning, pointing out that the more difficult transport conditions are unfavourable for the Russians in their present impetuous temper. Although heavy fighting is in progress there have been little territorial changes. The Germans still hold more advanced positions than the Russians hoped. However, the Russians point out that although Marshal 1 imoshenko's and General Zhukov's armies have not achieved the success hoped for and have not completed their embraces across the Dnieper and Viazma regions, they have managed the most important mobile parts of these enterprises and may still achieve much by attrition from the points already reached against the semi-enveloped German armies in the Donetz Basin and between Smolensk and Moscow. The "sack mouth" at Viazma is so narrow that it may yet 'be closed while the Rzhev and Gjatsk pockets may be pounded to a smaller compass, if not destroyed. The Moscow radio said that Dr Divakov, vice-chairman of the Soviet Red Cross and Red Crescent, expressing thanks for gifts from allies abroad, said an Australian steamer laden with food and clothes had just arrived at a Russian port, while many parcels had also been received from New Zealand. "We regard these gifts as an expression of sympathy for the sacrifices the Russians have been compelled to bear in the war of liberation," he said.