Desperate Fighting Inside Russian Lines

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 161, 9 July 1943, Page 5

Desperate Fighting Inside Russian Lines

GERMANS CHANGE TUNE ABOUT OFFENSIVE

Received Thursday, 11.20 p.m* LONDON, July 8.

Desperate fighting is going on inside the Russian lines at points where Ger man tanks made local penetrations, re ports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. There is no sign that enemy pressure is weakening. The Germans are bringing reinforcements by gliders right up to the front line, doing so to make up for transport losses. The Paris radio says the fighting has increased in intensity with the tank struggle still swaying to and fro. The Russians and Germans have crack troops massed behind their lines for use at the opportune moment. The Berlin .correspondent of the Zurich Neuezercher Zeitung says the German propaganda line has suddenly changed and they are now admitting the German offensive. The changed atu tude is probably due to some successes, but Berlin military quarters refrain from over-optimism. By starting the offensive at this comparatively late period Hitler has embarked on a heavy task and he may be expected to stop at nothing, says the Moscow radio. Hitler would probably have preferred to sit back and wait for his adversary to make the first move, but he could not afford to let the whole summer pass with the German army .nactive. .

Hitler nas again applied his typical adventurous tactics by throwing everything against Russia and leaving only skeleton armies to face a possible Allied invasion. German propagandists thought by saying Hitler would not start an offensive against Russia that they would make the British and Americans believe Germany was able to move troops from the east to the west.

which recently arrived in Russia 'from Yugoslavia. . The Luftwaffe is throwing in increasing numbers of planes, emulating the American close formation bombing in order to protect the bombers from the devastating blows of the Russian air force. The Germans are not assigning any part of their fighter force to block Soviet aerodromes in an attempt to drive the Russian fighters from the sky. “Although the Germans in the OrelKursk area are throwing in a great weight of armour, Russian artillery, as well as the air force, are chewing the tanks and panzers to pieces,” adds the British United Press correspondent.

“One of the main reasons for the German failure to achieve any decisive success thus far,” he says, “is that they are unable to push the infantry into slight breaches in the Russian lines to exploit the successes of their arm-

“Another factor is that the Russians have found means of dealing with the giant Tiger tanks. What it is cannot oe revealed, but it is apparently effective. A large number of these 60ton monsters have been destroyed. “The intensity of the German attacks in the Orel-Kursk sector can be judged from the fact that one Russian unit in one day repulsed 16 attacks. The Russians at nightfall were still in possession of their original positions, and the uattleground was strewn with German oodies and tanks.”

Reports from all the main sectors confirm that the German attack is undiminished. Berlin radio stated: “No doubt the battle has not yet reached its climax. ’ ’ The radio adds that the Russians were using completely new types of tanks of Russian, British and American make.

Moscow observers warn that it is still' too early to form final judgment on the offensive. They point out that Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge is com manding the German armies and may nave surprises in store.

Pravda says: “The Fascist beast, although tired out as a result of the two years’ struggle against Russia, is not yet dead and still retains its strength. Stalingrad and Tunis may act like stings exasperating the beast to some desperate undertakings with all the forces at its command. ‘ ‘ Mr. Stalin has warned us that bitter fighting lies ahead, and it will need tremondous staying power and the straining of efforts and resources to bring the Allies’ task to a victorious conclusion.

Germany still declines to admit she has opened an offensive on the central front. “It isn’t our offensive,” sums up the German attitude on the Orel Kurslc-Byelgorod fighting. “It is all a mistake, ’ ’ said the German military spokesman. “The Russians mistook a local German attack for an all-out offensive and themselves launched an enormous counterattack, from which tho present heavy aud over-spreading fighting has developed.” One London comment is that the German ooject is to secure an alibi for themselves in case the offensive fails. They would then be able to claim that their real object had heen achieved—namely, disrupting the big Russian offensive.

To-day’s German communique states: ‘ * Heavy attacks by strong Russian forces concentrated in the Byelgorod area and also south of Orel, again failed yesterday. Our troops, on the othe: hand, with effective Luftwaffe support, went over to the offensive and succeeded in deeply penetrating the Russian positions, inflicting the heaviest losses.”