ATTACKS REPELLED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24633, 12 July 1943, Page 3

ATTACKS REPELLED

OBEL-KUBSK SECTOB RUSSIAN MASTERY IN AIR {Reed. 10.10 p.m.) LONDON. July 11 The Moscow radio reports that in the Orel-Kursk directions German troops, having sustained heavy losses of material, are bringing up new reserves. Heavy German tank attacks made a slight penetration of Russian positions, but heavy losses inflicted on the enemy compelled him to retreat.

The Moscow newspaper Red Star says the fighting between Kursk and Orel is developing on a still larger scale. A particularly tense struggle is going on for a town south of Orel. The Germans hurled three tank and three infantry divisions, protected by hordes of planes, against one narrow sector on Thursday. About 250 German tanks participated in the attack, but not one penetrated the Russian line. In this sector some of the sharpest tank and air blows were struck against Russian populated points and the railway, but the attacks broke against the deep defences. Tried Battle Tactics The Russians are using tried battle tactics. The infantry cut off German infantry from the tanks and then engaged the 'enemy infantrymen, while the artillery to the rear engaged the German tanks. Battle experience is proving the vulnerability of the German Tigers to heavy artillery and antitank fire

The Soviet Air Force is successfully opposing the enemy land and air forces. In one attack on an enemy aerodrome 34 German aircraft were shot down. Soviet long-range aircraft on Friday night for the fifth successive night heavily attacked targets in the enemy's rear. A Russian aircraft sank an enemy submarine in the Black Sea.

During the first day of the offensive Luftwaffe fighters attempted to establish a "flying fence" between the Russian planes and the German bombers, says the Associated Press. Groups of 60 to 80 Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfs hung over Russian soil six to ten miles behind the front line, but the manoeuvre failed when the main group of Russian fighters outflanked the Luftwaffe fence. Over 100 German planes were destroyed in the resulting action and many more damaged. Soviet Air Initiative Tho second day the Luftwaffe attempted to build up the fence to a still greater strength, but the fence was dissolved before a concentrated attack from Russian fighters. The Germans lost another 80 planes. The Soviet pilots have won the initiative in the air, and the Germans now keep away. The chief reason for Hitler's failure to achieve not only stategic, but evea important, tactical gains is the fact that the Rusian air force is stubbornly holding the initiative on the entire Kursk salient, although the Luftwaffe is making a reckless bid for air mastery by bringing up reserves from Western luirope, the Kuban and Southern Ukraine, says the Exchange Telegraph's Moscow representative.

POLISH ARMY HEAD HERO OF PRZEMYSL CHOSEN (Reed. 7.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 30 The Polish Telegraph Bureau says that General Kazimierz Sosnkowski has been appointed Polish Commander-in-Chief. President Raezkiewicz has asked M. Mikolajczyk, acting-Prime Minister, to form a new Cabinet, General Sosnkowski is the hero of Przemysl, where he defeated superior numbers of Germans, taking several thousand prisoners and many tanks ■ and guns. When the Russians marched into Poland he escaped disguised as a peasant, and walked 125 miles across the Carpathians. He reached Paris, where lie offered his services to Genoral Sikorski. He was injured in 1911 in an air raid on London. It was reported earlier that M. Mikolajczyk had resigned owing to differences about the choice of a com-mander-in-chief to succeed General Sikorski, who was killed in a piano crash on July 4. says the Daily Telegraph, General Sil-jwski was also Prime Minister, but it ». as understood that in the reconstructed Polish Government the . |iost of Commander-in-Chief would be a _ purely military post, without political" duties. General Kukiei waa appointed temporarily. . a A