NO REST FOR GERMANS

Southland Times, Issue 24684, 4 March 1942, Page 5

NO REST FOR GERMANS

RED ARMY KEEPS INITIATIVE TIMOSHENKO STARTS NEW DRIVES (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, March 2. Marshal Timoshenko has launched a new offensive in three main drives, says The Daily Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent. The first is a double-pronged thrust north and south of Kharkov, the second is against Dnepropetrovsk, and the third is from the Kerch Peninsula. Two German divisions in the Ukraine were badly mauled and forced to retreat. A Russian force which crossed the ice of the Sea of Azov is fighting savagely in the rear of the German position around Taganrog. Heavy fighting is raging in the Crimea without decisive result. Russian warships shelled the Crimean coast. There is no slackening in Russian pressure on Staraya Russa, Smolensk and also east and .west of Leningrad. Russian cavalry, which has broken through the German lines in the Leningrad area, is now seriously threatening the main line of communication of the besiegers. Considerable Russian air successes are announced in a Soviet communique which states that on Sunday 10 enemy planes were shot down in aerial combat

and, 67 were destroyed on the ground. This makes the total losses of the enemy for the day 77 planes, for the loss of eight Russian.

Swiss reports say that Berlin newspapers admit that Russian attacks of undiminished severity along the whole of the front have forced the German High Command to undertake large-scale operations.

Several German war correspondents describe the fighting as similar to the most fierce battles, of the 1941 campaign. The Russian Army newspaper Red Star says that the 11th Artillery Regiment is pounding the encircled Germans at Staraya Russa. Observation posts, established far ahead of the Russian positions, are keeping the landing grounds under special observation. Immediately a plane lands it is plastered with shells. Eleven planes had thus been destroyed in a few days.