ANOTHER BREACH

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24251, 17 April 1942, Page 6

ANOTHER BREACH

RUSSIAN PENETRATION BRYANSK AREA BATTLE VITAL POSITION TAKEN MUCH BOOTY CAPTURED By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Reed. 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, April 15 • Reports from Kuibyshev, quoted by the British official wireless, speak of particularly bloody, although Email-scale, battles now being fought out on the Kalinin front, The Russians, it is claimed, are still advancing and continue to inflict the heaviest casualties on the enemy. Large quantities of supplies and munitions have been captured. On the Bryansk front the Red Army is stated to have broken through the first line of defence and fighting is now raging on the second defence line. The Russians approached a vital position on this front and overcame desperate defence and continued to advance. • The Moscow radio stated that after a 10-day battle General Zhukoff s forces penetrated the German second defence line in the Bryansk area and recaptured many villages and wiped out 3000 Germans. At one point the Russians captured a fort by bayonet charge. Bryansk is a key point in a central network of railways. Fierce fighting is now going on for important towns in this sector. Drive on Smolensk Another drive on Smolensk is re- . ported from a town to the north-east. Smolensk is one of Germany's vital bases where supplies are being massed for the spring offensive. A German counter-attack on the central front has been hurled back with heavy losses. Having thrown the enemy back, the Russians advanced and recaptured an enemy stronghold. A Berlin communique states that heavy artillery shelled an important .objective at Leningrad, causing fires and explosions, and the Luftwaffe attacked the harbour and aerodrome at " iSebastopol. v Guerillas Raid Aerodrome A Soviet raid On a German aerodrome near Leningrad resulted in the • ' destruction of 22 German aeroplanes. A group of Russian guerillas crept up to the aerodrome from all sides and attacked simultaneously. In their panic the German troops set fire to 17 of their own aeroplanes. # Writing in the Moscow News, Colonel Zhurzvlev says that in the first week in April, in which it has already been stated that 466 German aeroplanes were destroyed, the Germans lost 22,000 killed and wounded on two fronts alone. Mud Slows the Pace According to the Germans, activity on the eastern front has relaxed since , the week-end, even in the Donetz ' s . Basin and the Crimea, and it is expected that the mud will bring major operations to a standstill until May, reports the Times' Stockholm correspondent. Russian reports also do not reflect large-scale operations anywhere and indicate that the action has been restricted to local shelling, patrolling and improving the lines, particularly at Leningrad and Lake Ilmen and in the ' central sector where the push which the Russians had begun toward Viazma from the Yukhnov and Medyn areas appears to be progressing slowly. Problem lor Germans One of the German High Command's greatest problems is in combating guerillas, whose persisteut ness is keeping hundreds of thousands of Germans pinned down guarding the railways, although the High Command wants to divert them for the concentration of huge armies in other sectors in readiness for the main offensive in May or June. . The 'Moscow radio says the Germans at Vitebsk have invented a new and 'ghastly form of execution of victims. The chin is pierced with a rusty hook attached to a rope, and the victim is then pulled up to a gallows, the hook under the weight of the body slowly penetrating the throat. Death comes several days later after terrible sufferings. The inhabitants of Vitebsk have named the invention "Himmler's Hook." BRITISH TANKS EFFICIENCY ASSURED SCIENTIFIC PREPARATION (Reed. 8.40 p.m.) LONDON, April 15 The research and detailed preparation necessary before supplies and equipment are shipped to Russia are described by the War Office. Preparation is governed by weather forecasts in this country, combined with those from men of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, who spent all the winter in jßussia. •, _ i Tests in laboratories at 40 degrees below zero ensured that *ll tanks shipped from here during the past win- ! fer arrived in fighting trim. This is called "articising. The work involved in articising a Valentine, for instance, took 96 man-hours. When it is received from the manufacturers all the normal grease and oil have to be drained or scraped off and special anti- ' freeze mixtures used. In addition, the whole tank is sealed from air and sea water bv heavily greased tapes. I\ew absorbers to take the heavy anti-freeze oil have to be fitted. Now, with the gradual thaw on the > Russian front, the Royal Army Ordnance Corps prepares tanks in new _ ways to a weather time-table, so that / the Russians receive the tanks in the most suitable condition for the type or weather prevailing at the front. News of British war supplies to Russia given in Parliament to-day stated that a greater quantity of war materials of all kinds was sent from the British Empire to Russia during the first three months of 1942 than during the last three months of 1941. BANNED MAGAZINE WASHINGTON, April 15 Father Coughlin, commenting at his home in Detroit on the banning of the magazine Social Justice, said: "I am " neither editor, owner nor publisher of Social Justice. However, if the , Attorney-General wishes to summon me to Washington to defend the property of Social Justice, I will not . only be happy to do so, but I challenge him to an invitation. ' "The reason I make this statement is due to the persistent fact that newspapers, Communists and New Dealers • of America have been characterising V me as pro-Nazi and a disgrace to the priesthood. Therefore, I would gladly meet their challenge if the AttorneyGeneral has the fortitude to issue it." FUND FOR NEW CRUISER CANBERRA, April 16 The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. J. Curtin, announced tliat satisfactory arrangements for the purchase of a new ship to replace the lost cruiser Sydney » could not be made at present. Pending ' the purchase of a new ship, the collected hv H.M.A.S. Sydney Fund would be held in trust and would be apS lied exclusively as part of the cost ot He «ew Sydney:^