Pushing Germans To Black Sea

Northern Advocate, 9 April 1943, Page 3

Pushing Germans To Black Sea

(Rec. 11 a.m.)

LONDON. April 8

The Russians in Kuban are slowly and inexorably pushing the Germans towards the sea. Russian encirclement tactics threaten to isolate many German garrisons because their strength is offset by the precariousness of their communications in .the waterlogged Kuban delta, the Germans having to fight strenouously to protect the narrow strips above the water. The Russians in the last few days have taken several villages connected with the mainland only by strips of land. On the Donetz front the Germans have temporarily halted the main attacks but both sides are probing for weak spots.

Flooded Rivers Bar Advance

The German Command from Byelgorod to Isyum is regrouping its forces ready for new attack? against. Russian bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donetz, says Reuter's Moscow correspondent, but the German chances of forcing the river, unless to launch a full-scale offensive, are dwindling daily because ice over the Donetz is disappearing. The Donetz is rising and flooded rivers throughout Russia are making a big advance at present impossible. Soviet successes in Izyum will compel the Germans to consider the possibility of a Russian summer offensive, says the Columbia' Broadcasting System’s Moscow correspondent. The Germans yesterday! ajiter launching attacks for five days, ceased to attempt to force a crossing at Izyum. German losses included 2500 dead, 27 tanks and 20 guns. Mobile German Gun Isolated exchanges of artillery fire in the Sevsk area is the only activity on the central front. The Russians report that the Germans are extensively using a tank type of mobile 75-milli-metre gun, against the Russian artillery gun. It is mounted on a 22-ton truck with a speed of 30 miles an hour and a range of 90 miles. Berlin radio’s commentator (Captain Sertorius) says that the length of the present lull on the eastern front cannot be predicted because the weather at present is subject to unusual fluctuations. However, the duration ol the pause is not only dependable on the weather but on the length of time either opponent takes to completely regroup his forces. Artillery v. Armour Far from the Germans slackening their efforts to dislodge the Russians from Donetz bridgeheads before the Red Army has time to regroup for a counter-attack, latest reports show the Germans, in the second week’s stubborn effort, are again using large panzer forces after experimenting with smaller attacks with mixed panzer and infantry units. Large formations of the Luftwaffe ■ are also being thrown into the battle for bridgeheads, particularly in the Isyum area, where the Red Air Fbrce is constantly engaged beating - off air attacks. The Germans are finding Russian hill positions at the entrance to Isyum a hard nut to . crack, and the enemy is no nearer than when he started to attack last Sunday. The Germans, in a series of bitterly-fought battles in the last four days, lost nearly 3000 killed and at least 40 tanks.

Moscow correspondents agree that the Russians in the Middle and Upper Donetz, despite heavier German assaults are holding their ground everywhere, although the battle is spreading southwards from Isyurn to Chuguyev.

The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says the battle of Isyurn is a battle of armour against artillery, in which wave upon wave of infantrymen are being held up by a resolute Russian force, strongly entrenched. The Germans’ chief advantage is that they have dry land behind, whereas the defenders are backed by the swollen Donetz. Heavy Plane Concentrations Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says there is a heavy concentration of enemy planes behind the Kharkov-Izyum-Tag-anrog front and unflagging movement of German troops from the rear suggests that the Germans expect largescale fighting on this sector. Fighting in Kuban is still fierce as the Russians attempt to drive the enemy from the last positions in the Caucasus. The German, news agency admitted that several Soviet groups had breached the end of Kuban bridgehead. Reuter reports that the Russians have wrested another point from the Germans and have advanced a step nearer Kerch Straits. The great Caspian-Volga oil route has been reopened. The first fleet of tankers from Baku have arrived at Astrakhan with tens of thousands of tons of aviation, tractor and industrial oil. The fleet arrived before the official opening of the navigation season after battling their way through giant icefloes m the south Caspian and made the voyage in the record time of four days.