GERMAN DEFIANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25303, 13 August 1943, Page 5

GERMAN DEFIANCE

DETERMINED TO- HOLD CITY GREAT BATTLES RAGING ON WIDE FRONT (Rec. 1.30 a-m.) LONDON, Aug. 12. The German War Office announces that Germany is determined to defend and hold Kharkov at any cost, as it is the key position to the entire southern front. It is claimed that prepared counterattacks would very soon stabilise the situation.

A Swedish news agency says that the Russian offensive is now going on along a nearly continuous, front of ,300 miles from Yartsevo to Chuguyev. The Russians have broken, through the German fines at three points on the Vyazma sector, states the Germancontrdlled Paris radio. The Red Army, supported by an unprecedented artillery barrage, is incessantly attacking with masses of infantry and tanks. Violent fighting is- in progress-and the Russian infiltrations have been reduced as far as possible. The Russian attacks south-west of ByelgorOd have reached a violence not yet attained on the eastern front.

The Moscow radio reports that the Germans have launched a series of counter-attacks supported by armoured trains in a bid to bold up the Russian advance to Bryansk. The Red Army repulsed all the attacks, and threw the Germans back westwards with heavy losses. The Russians west of Kromy are continuing to-advance, and are capturing' many inhabited localities. ' , ■ " 1