Thaw Slowly Spreading

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 48, 26 February 1943, Page 5

Thaw Slowly Spreading

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, Feb. 24.

With hopes of the thaw coming to their rescue, it is evident the German High Command intends to make an all-out effort to hold the Donetz Basin. Side by side with reports of Russian thrusts towards Kiev, despatches from Moscow reveal that massed additional German infantry, tanks and artillery are being thrown in the Kramatorsk and Krasnoarmeysk area. Meanwhile, Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the German High Command has ordered the recapture of these vital railway centres at all cost. The Germans, therefore, are launching ceaseless counter-attacks, supported by groups of upwards -of 100 tanks. The Russians, nevertheless, are pushing back the Germans, and show confidence in retaining Kramatorsk and Krasnoarmeysk by continuing restoration work there.

The British United Press correspondent in Moscow reports that the thaw is coming early this year. Terrific German efforts to hold positions are obviously designed to maintain the present line until the spring. However, Russian artillery and tankbusters are still reducing the German strength and maintaining a general advance over the whole front.

Local populations liberated in the Donetz Basin —miners, farmers and metal workers—are flocking to swell the ranks of the Russian armies. Meanwhile, the thaw is slowly spreading in the entire Ukraine steppes. It is feared the thaw may soon affect the Russians ’ northward advance towards Poltava.

Reuter says that, while the Germans are making efforts to retain their foothold in the centre of the Donetz Basin, their right flank on the .Sea of Azov is increasingly threatened. General Malinovski, rapidly advancing westwards from Rostov, has captured a range of hills between Taganrog and Mariupol, and stormed a stronglydefended river (probably the river Mius). Heavy concentrations of the Luftwaffe have been observed in the Southern Donetz sector, but the Russians have beaten off German air attacks, inflicting losses of upwards of 35 planes a day. The Germans evidently are racing against time before fresh Red Army forces come up from the Caucasus, where the fighting has almost ended.