FATE OF KHARKOV

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24203, 19 February 1942, Page 7

FATE OF KHARKOV

GERMANS LEAVING DRIVE TO SMOLENSK REGIMENTS WIPED OUT LONDON, Feb. IS There are reports that the Germans are preparing to leave Kharkov. This , projected move appears to be induced by the Russian capture last Saturday of Krasnograd, 70 miles south-west of-Kharkov, this operation being successfully carried out under the personal command of Marshal Timoshenko. Moscow claims thai a German counter-attack with tanks in the Kharkov area has failed. The Russians state that the enemy is being worn down by constant Soviet attacks. • The Russians are apparently still making progress toward Smolensk in spite of the fact that the Germans are rushing up reinforcements from Orel. Russian guerillas have been very active behind the German lines in the Smolensk district.

Only Ten Survivors One German regiment which arrived on the eastern front in January from France is reported to have lost up to 80 per cent of its personnel in its first engagement. Practically all its officers were killed or wounded. With 40 men the German commander took to the woods. The men suffered great hardship in the cold, and at last the commander, with only nine men left, walked to the nearest village and surrendered.

Though the Russians have not officially claimed the recapture of any named town of any size in the past few days, it seems clear that the Soviet forces are still slowly advancing on all sectors of the front against stiffening German resistance. Every foot of ground seems to be fiercely contested and it would appear that the losses on both sides have heen-severe.

Cavalry Successes The Russians on one sector of .the central front have destroyed six German infantry battalions. Russian cavalry forces in White Russia have recaptured 40 positions, says the Moscow correspondent af the Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladets. After the latest Soviet communique had merely mentioned continued progress against the enemy, a supplementary communique gave impressive details of enemy material destroyed and captured during the past 24 hours, of casualties inflicted and of localities recaptured. The supplement states that on the northern sector Soviet cavalry units have liberated 40 localities in the last few days, and over 1200 German officers and men have been killed on the southern part of the front. Several enemy counter-attacks have been repulsed and 300 of the enemy killed. A Washington message says President Roosevelt informed M. Stalin in a recent communication that the United States had agreed tor make another very Jarge loan to the,. Soviet for the purchase of military equipment and munitions. The loan would not bear interest.

AMERICAN SUPPLIES CATCH UP IN FORTNIGHT . APPROPRIATIONS FOR WAR (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 _ President Roosevelt declared that - within a fortnight the United Stated" would catch up with scheduled deliveries of war equipment and supplies promised to Russia last autumn by the Harriman Mission. It was stated recently that only half the quantity of supplies had arrived in Russia. The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved the largest Appropriations Bill in history, amounting to 32,000,000,000 dollars, chiefly for war supplies, arms, ordnance, shipbuilding and lease-lend. The bill in- • eludes 5,430,000,000 dollars additional lease- lend, bringing the total to 17.000,000,000 dollars. > It was reported earlier that Russian and American officials were concerned about the irregular flow of equipment from America to Russia, which was 50 per cent below the figures agreed upon. It was understood that the Russians have been assured that materials, will be shipped to them in increasing quantities.

BRITISH AID TO RUSSIA (Reed. 7.25 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 17 In less than four months, says the British official wireless,-£1,500,000. has been contributed to Mrs. Churchill's Red Cross Aid-to-Russia Fund bv the public of the British Empire. Nearly three-fifths of the money has been spent. All the surgical goods asked for by the Soviet authorities will have been fully dealt with bv June, the completion date notified by Russians. Over 1,000,000 woollen garments have been bought and over 500,000 blankets for the home use of Jefugees now restored to places evacuated by the Germans.

FOODSTUFFS FOR. GREECE

SWEDISH SHIP CHARTERED DEATHS FROM STARVATION (Reed. 12.10 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. IS Th,e Minister of Economic Warfare, Dr. Hugh Dalton, told the House of Commons that Britain, in spite of representations through the International Red Cross, had not yet received a guarantee of safe conduct for the proposed first shipment of food to Greece through the enemy lines. The question of further relief was being considered. , The Minister said the worst conditions in German-controlled Europe prevailed in Greece and occupied Russia. Deaths from starvation were occurring in those territories. In other occupied territories reports did not indicate any deaths directly due to food shortage, although in Belgium and France some part of the increase in mortality from certain diseases, notably pneumonia, was probably due to insufficient nutrition. In Norway, the Netherlands and Czecho-Slovakia the diet, although it was well -below pre-war standards, had not been so inadequate as to cause any marked increase in the death tate. The International Red Cross at Geneva announces that it has cliartered a Swedish ship to take foodstuffs from Haifa to Greece and bring back 2UUU Greek children, a proportion of which will be given asylum in various parts of the British Empire.. Turkey is prepared to take another 1000 children. JAPANESE CABINET (Reed. 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, Feb. 17 The Tokio radio quotes Domei reports that the Cabinet has relieved Tojc. ot the additional post of Minister of Home Affairs. Michio Yuzawa has been given the portfolio.