GERMAN DRIVE FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24636, 15 July 1943, Page 3

GERMAN DRIVE FAILS

OREL-KURSK SECTOR SLACKENING OF BATTLE (Reed. G.lO p.m.) LONDON, July 14 The fact that the Germans had to call off their attacks iu the direction of Orel and Kursk on the eighth day of their powerful offensive is the best news the Russians have had this summer, says the Moscow correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. He adds that there are also indications that the battle is slackening in all sectors of the central front. In London military observers consider the Russians have won the first round, and that on the ninth day of the offensive the danger is no greater than on the first day of the attack. Renter's correspondent in Moscow savs that the battle of Kursk has not yet been decided, but unless von Kluge is able to produce a military white rabbit from Hitler's battered top hat. it looks as though Goebbels had had a sound intuition when he pretended that the German offensive was not an offensive at all. NAZI TANK LOSSES REPORTS FROM MOSCOW (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 14 More than 100 German tanks were destroyed or disabled in Monday's fighting, says a Moscow message. Of these 20 were Tiger tanks. The fighting yesterday cost the enemy 96 tanks. The Soviet newspaper, Izvestia, states that Russian artillerymen on the Bielgorod front, in a three-day battle, knocked out 62 tanks, silenced 34 artillery batteries and 14 mortar batteries, and repulsed 36 German panzer and infantry attacks The Russians have identified at least 15 armoured divisions which have been thrown into unsuccessful attempts to demolish the-salient. Presumably, these divisions have been considerably mauled, and German armour is still being used up at a great rate. • . FIGHTING IN NORTH LONDON, July 14 Fighting north of Moscow on the Kalinin, Leningrad and Volkhov fronts is again mentioned by the Moscow communique. None of it, however, seems to have been on a large scale. RESCUE OF CHILDREN LONDON. July 13 It is officially announced in Moscow that Russian guerillas in the Mobizev region have liberated a large group of Russian children who had been forcibly taken from their .parents by the Germans. The Germans had intended sending them to a military hospital where their blood would be taken for transfusion for wounded German officers.