FIERCE BATTLES RAGING

Southland Times, Issue 24681, 28 February 1942, Page 5

FIERCE BATTLES RAGING

FIGHTING AROUND STARAYA RUSSA 16TH GERMAN ARMY BATTERED (Rec. 5.30 p.m.) LONDON, February 26. While fierce battles are raging around Staraya Russa, with the Russians battering the encircled Germany Army, the official German News Agency issued a denial that the 16th German Army had been destroyed, and claimed a Luftwaffe success against the Russians in this area. General Brockdorff admitted in a captured order of the day that 96,000 Germans troops were encircled at Staraya Russa. The Russians are now rounding up scattered units and repulsing German efforts to break out. Russian artillery is deluging the enemy with shells, and is raking every enemy - occupied settlement. Russian planes dropped thousands of leaflets advising the Germans that their fate was sealed and urging them to lay down their arms.

The German High Command rushed reserves to rescue their encircled comrades. More planes and weapons are being brought into operation by the Russians for the final assault. Guerrillas assisted in the encirclement of the Germans at Staraya Russa so effectively that the Germans sent out against them a punitive expeditionary force composed of planes and of several battalions using armoured cars. This force fought for 10 days with the guerrillas whom the Germans admit control large areas behind the lines. Meanwhile, a war of extermination, as the Russians describe it, is proceeding with the utmest fury in other directions. German despatches to Stockholm mention fighting for the railway from Rjev to Viazma,

which supports unofficial news that Rjev is completely encircled. Unless the Germans manage to keep the railway from Dorogcbuj to Lihoslavl open Viazma will likewise be encircled.

Red Star reports increased activity in the Leningrad area. The Germans are again shelling the city, and Luftwaffe raids are more numerous.

The Russians are using “blockhouse basher” units on the south-west front to creep up on German posts and blow them up before an infantry advance. Despatches claim that the Red Army is breaking the mighty German fortification line on this front. HERO OF STARAYA RUSSA

Lieutenant-General Pavel 2).lexayevick Kurochking, who succeeded Marshal Voroshilov in command of the north-western sector of the Central Front, directed the encirclement of the 16th German Army at Staraya Russa. He is 40 years of age. He began work at 12 and was a railway workei- at Petrograd in 1917. He then joined the Red Army. He fought in the Finnish War and was awarded the Order of Lenin.