FIERCE FIGHTING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 119, 20 April 1942, Page 5

FIERCE FIGHTING

IN LENINGRAD AREA HEAVY GERMAN LOSSES. (United Press Association —Copyright.) (1.15 p.m.) RUGBY, April 19. Tlie latest Russian communique has no material changes to report during yesterday. On Eriday six German planes were destroyed against the Russians' loss of four. The supplement to the communique adds that in the last two days on the Leningrad front ]SOO German officers and men were killed in fierce fighting and 3160 have been killed in the last few days on the Kalinin front. Unsuccessful German attacks on the south-western front are reported in a Soviet communique, which says that the enemy lost over 350 men killed. On the central front the Russians surrounded an enemy position and inflicted severe losses. The result of the German attempts during the past month to regain the initiative on the Leningrad front, states a Kuibyshev message, has been that General Mereskov (the Soviet commander there) defeated two divisions which had originally been intended for the spring offensive These are the reserve S.S. Di- I vision, "Adolf Hitler," and the 20th Motorised Division. German efforts during the past few days to break the Soviet front in the Leningrad sector hav«» been unsuccessful and yesterday the Germans lost at least 300 men' killed. The message says that the Russians are continuing to advance against the i Finns despite increasing resistance of the Finns, who have lost thousands of men in the last two days. RUSSIAN AIR SUCCESSES. An exploit by six Russian planes which routed 28 Germans with heavyloss to the enemy is described by the Moscow radio. Six planes, it is stated, met a group of German planes consisting of 1.5 heavy German bombers and five Me 109's on the Karelian front. In spite of the numerical superiority of the enemy the Russians attacked and three enemy planes were destroyed, one of them being rammed The enemy received reinforcements of eight Me 109's. Russian pilots rammed two further Me 109's and after 20 minutes' fighting the enemy planes fled. All the Russian planes returned to their aerodrome, one with a damaged wing with which the pilot rammed the enemy machine. A description of another notable exploit comes from the Leningrad front. A few days ago Russian planes carried out a successful raid oil an enemv aerodrome. Nine German planes were destroyed and about 10 damaged on the ground. Two were shot down in aerial combat over ah aerodrome