MASSIVE BLOWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25302, 12 August 1943, Page 5

MASSIVE BLOWS

SOVIET AIR FORCE CO-OPERATION WITH ARMY LONDON, Aug. 10. The Germans are giving a spate of news about the numerous attacks which they - say the Russians are launching at various points of the Russian front. The Berlin radio stated that a full-scale battle is raging in the area 175 miles south-west of Moscow and 50 miles north-east of Smolensk. The radio added, however, that the main Russian drive is still on the Kharkov front. The German News Agency reported that on the eastern wing of the Leningrad front the Russians yesterday launched several attacks with artillery and air support. The Moscow radio announced that the Russian generals, Apanashenko and Gurtyev, were killed in action, the former on the Byelgorod front and the latter on the Orel front.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, describing the Red Army’s tactics, says that the Russians in the Kharkov offensive, on an irregular 80-mile front, are enveloping German garrisons and slashing deep into their lines with tactics similar to those used in the last stages of the Russian winter campaign. Russian mobile units first disrupt German communications with harassing attacks from many points, and tank “ fists ” then punch a way through their lines and split them into isolated groups, which are dealt yith by following infantry. The correspondent adds that front-line reports emphasise the excellent co-operation between the Red Air Force and the ground forces. The air force seems to have unquestionable supremacy. A despatch from the front line to the newspaper Red Star states that the Russians are advancing under ah air umbrella. The Red Air Force, dealing massive blows, destroyed or damaged in the past three days 148 tanks and 600 lorries, blew up 24 ammunition dumps, and silenced 68 field anti-aircraft batteries. A Russian communique says: “ Soviet troops on all fronts yesterday destroyed or disabled 35 enemy tanks, while 84 enemy planes were shot down. Among the places occupied _by the Russians are Khotynets, 16 miles east of Karachev and approximately halfway along the Orel-Bryansk railway; Lipsti, about 12 miles north-east of Kharkov; Bolshoye; Bobrik, 14 miles south-east of Sumy; Bromlyn, about 20 miles due south of Sumy; and Rjatnitskoye, 22 miles east of Kharkov, on the western bank of the Northern Donetz.”

The communique also mentions a railway station 14 miles north-west of Kharkov. v ‘