FIGHT FOR SEBASTOPOL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 18 April 1944, Page 5

FIGHT FOR SEBASTOPOL

Grim Street Battles Raging

(Rec. 11.55 a.m.) London, April 17. With the battle for Sebastopol entering the second day the Russians arc encountering stiffer resistance, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Rumanians and Germans inside the beleaguered fortress are now fighting what is really a delaying action for the defen ce of Rumania. Axis troops <j,re using covering forces on the outskirts of Sebastopol, exploiting every blocking tactic devisable in order to delay the final Russian assault. I he German beach-head in the Crimea is now reduced to a stretch of about 30 miles south-east of Sebastopol, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. Griyn street battles are at present going on in the northern, eastern and southern suburbs of Sebastopol, while overhead Russian planes continue to pound the city and waterfront. The combined land and air assault is paralysing German attempts at evacuation and disorganising the improvised German defences. Outside the city fierce fighting is still going on in the southern mountains, but organised German resistance has ceased.

Moscow radio reports that Russian mobile units are operating in the Crimean mountains making frequent raids against the enemy's rear, cutting roads, blowing up ammunition dumps and destroying equipment. The Germans left artillery and ma-chine-gun rearguards on the approaches to Yalta where they hoped to hold up the Russians, states a Russian supplementary communique. The Russians in small groups bypassed the rearguards and dealt with them from behind, after which developed an offensive against Yalta. German prisoners say the commander and other senior officers of the German Ninety-eighth Infanthy Division after t':e division’s rout on Kerch Peninsula began to suficr from "Cri- I mean illness” and escaped by air. It is also known that a number of other j German generals abandoned their i troops and deserted the Crimea by ! plane. New concentrations of Russian troops ■ have been observed in the Kishinev ■ and Jassy sectors says Vichy radio. It j is believed the Russians aim at the seizure or an important strategical | point for forthcoming operations. There i also signs of a new Russian offensive in Poland. Fighting has increased in j violence east of Stanislawow and west J of Tarnopol.