KUBAN BATTLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 May 1943, Page 2

KUBAN BATTLE

REPORTS OF HEAVY FIGHTING LARGE RUSSIAN FORCES THROWN IN “BIG STORMY EVENTS” FORECAST (Rec. 1.10 p.m.) London, April 30. Although the Russians are maintaining silence, persistent German reports declare that the Russians have not slackened their efforts to drive the Germans out of their last Kuban stronghold. Reuter’s Stockholm ctrrespondent says the Germans report that General Maslennikov has thrown 100.000 men and several tank brigades into the new assault. Captain Sertorius, Berlin radio commentator, elaborates the assertion that the Russians are attacking on a large scale in Kuban. He says nine Russian rifle divisions and three tank brigades fruitlessly attacked both German flanks at Krymskaya in the main thrust of a new offensive. The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says the Germans are continuing to move up large amounts of munitions and su’pr plies to the whole Russian front. It is also reported that large reinforcements are moving up by train and lorry. The Russians are hitting the lines ol communication with heavy blows chiefly from the air with Stormoviks and bombers. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says: “The Red Army is on its toes from Leningrad to Novorossiisk as the great May Day national holiday ushers in the spring and summer campaign. “Izvestia,” in an editorial, states: “Not many days separate us from big stormy events. The hour of liberation is approaching.” The crushing defeat of the Luftwaffe over the Kuban area on 28th and 29th April when Russian pilots destroyed 116 German planes marked the culmination of the terrific struggle for air supremacy that had been going on during April. Many Russian air aces in April added ten and even fifteen German planes to their individual scores.—P.A.