URGENT CALL FOR TROOPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24832, 4 February 1942, Page 5

URGENT CALL FOR TROOPS

NAZIS ON SOVIET FRONT EFFORT TO STEM ADVANCE FURTHER. RUSSIAN GAINS (Rec. 0.15 a.m.) . ' LONDON, Feb. 3. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Express reports that 20 of the 25 German divisions withdrawn from the Russian front early in December for special training as storm troops in the coming ■y; spring offensive have been sent back to the eastern front following an urgent* demand from Hitler's generals for reinforcements to prevent a general ; Russian break-through. The Russians announce the capture of an important locality, identified as " V," on the central front. The town was stormed in a local attack before the Germans had time to destroy it, and in i the fighting 1000 Germans were killed.'- The Donetz-Moscow railway is now clear, and supplies of coal from the Donetz Basin have already reached the capital. The x Leningrad radio announced that the Russians on the Leningrad front have broken through to the German rear, where they ars operating successfully, killing many Germans. ' In the south, where fighting is still fierce around Kharkov, it appears that Marshal Timoshenko's objective is to deprive the enemy of bases from which an attack could be made oh the Caucasus. The principal ■ German bases for such an attempt would be Kharkov and Dneipropetrovsk.-' ■:' ''." ■./ ;•■ •';;" . •;;..- ; '■':..;' The Moscow radio says that after -two days' 'fierce the Russians captured the railway station at Gavrilovka, about 65 ,ihiies southward of Kharkov. Much booty was also captured. Big forces \ of German planes attempted to relieve the Germans, but failed. General Brison, commander of the* 62nd German Army Corps, was killed in an unnamed town. The Germans admit that mass Russian infantry attacks on Kharkov are taking place. The Russians state that fierce battles are .continuing, and that they have captured another 21 towns and villages.