DRIVE ON TIMOSHENKO'S FLANK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24284, 27 May 1942, Page 3

DRIVE ON TIMOSHENKO'S FLANK

HEAVY LOSSES BY GERMANS

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF MATERIAL

By Telegraph Press Association—Copyright jUeeKri May =B. 11.10 p.m.) LONDON. May 28 I , attempt L to , tu ™ Marshal Timoshenko's flank jouth of Kharkov has reached a new pitch of intensity. Enemy pressure round the Barvenkova area is still increasing. To-day's communique says that during the night Russian troops consolidated positions they had captured in the drive on Kharkov , "The defenders of the Soviet in the south are smashing the German offensive on the Isyum-Barvenkova sector," says the Moscow radio. Ihe Germans are suffering heavy losses in this area, where they are using large quantities of tanks, artillery and planes. After an artillery barrage and mass bombing, 150 German tanks made an attack. They were followed by troops with . automatic rifles and trench mortars and by infantry. These attacks were repulsed. More than 1000 Germans were killed and many ■ tanks and planes were destroyed. The Red Air Force is constantly attacking. According to the Soviet newspaper Pravda the battle has l pow reached its most bitter stage. Each side is throwing everything it has got into the fight. Enormous quantities of material are being used and enormous quantities are being destroyed Both sides are still comparatively fresh. They are still well supplied with equipment, so that territorial gains in either direction are not likely yet to be very great. Although it is a terrific battle it is not a blitz, the Pravda adds. It is rather a colossal slogging match—a real battle of destruction —and the side with the greatest stamina will win. The Berlin correspondent of a Swedish newspaper says a spokesman in Berlin denied strongly that the German offensive had started. He said it would start about the same time as the first German attack on Russia, which was launched on June 22 last year.