VIOLENT BATTLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25239, 31 May 1943, Page 3

VIOLENT BATTLE

KUBAN BRIDGEHEAD STALEMATE BROKEN (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 29. The battle in the Kuban is continuing with great violence, says Paris radio, which adds that the Russians have not yet thrown in their full strength. The Moscow mid-day communique again makes no mention of the Kuban fighting, but records a successful- Russian attack in the Lisichansk area. The communique states: “ Nothing of importance occurred on the front last night. A Russian detachment in the Lisichansk area attacked and dislodged the enemy after hand-to-hand fighting from fortified positions. The Germans counter-attacked, but were thrown back after losing a number of dead. War material and prisoners were also > The newspaper Red Star reports that the Russians in the past few days have repelled a number of German counterattacks in the Kuban. They inflicted considerable losses and captured prisoners and booty. The Germans have lost 197 planes in the Kuban in the past three days. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that fierce clashes are reported from the Kalinin front, where the Germans are stubbornly resisting Russian reconnaissance patrols. « “The Russians have not yet confirmed a break-through at Krymskaya in the Kuban, in spite of a German admission, but the recent stalemate has obviously been broken,” says the Moscow correspondent of the New York Times. It cannot be foreseen whether the Russian operations in this sector will develop into a full-scale offensive. The expulsion of the Nazis from their Kuban foothold across the Kerch Straits, however, would be of the greatest significance in the developments this summer. If the' Germans lose the Kuban bridgehead it will be a blow comparable, although on a lesser scale, to their expulsion from Africa.” A Soviet communique reports continued fighting north-east of Novorossisk. Soviet airmen in the Gulf of Riga sank an enemy transport. Last night the long-distance air force made a mass raid on the railway junction at Vitebsk. Many fires occurred, and several trains were wrecked. An area of enemy ammunition and oil dumps was subjected to particularly fierce bombing. All the Soviet planes returned. In the Lisichansk area there was local fighting, in which the Russians took some trenches. The enemy, after an unsuccessful counter-attack, left 400 dead on the battlefield. A special Soviet communique states: "On Thursday night Soviet bombers attacked the railway junctions of Mogilev, Karachev, and Roslavi. At Karachev and Roslavi direct hits on trains were observed, and fires were started. Mogilev was bombed with particular effect, and several trains and an ammunition dump were set on fire. All the Soviet planes returned.