BATTLE NEAR ISYUM

Southland Times, Issue 24758, 1 June 1942, Page 5

BATTLE NEAR ISYUM

GERMAN ATTACKS BEATEN off (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 30. Half a million troops are engaged in the vital Battle of the Bulge around Is/um. The Russians are reported to have temporarily stabilized the situation after beating off attacks by vast German forces. Field-Marshal Fedor von Bock failed in his all-day struggle to cross the Donetz river, which is playing a leading role in the tactical development of the German counter - offensive. For 72 hours the Oeimans have been within striking distance of the river, but the Russians hold all the defence points. The

Germans admitted that they had been forced on the defensive in one sector of the Isyum region. They have also become less aggressive in the Kharkov area. Moscow radio reports increased activity on the Leningrad front, where the Russians, despite the intense struggle on the southern front, are keeping up their pressure. The Russians occupied several important positions after Piercing strong German fortifications, ihe Germans are compelled to wage exhausting battles in a swampy area and to bring supplies and troops by air. Berlin radio says the Red Army is 1 using a four-barrelled machine-gun, • firing 5000 rounds a minute, against : parachutists. Several brigades of Bnt- , ish and American tanks being formed in Central Russia will be sent to the front soon, reports the British United , Press Moscow correspondent. British 1 built Valentines and Matildas have already been in action on the Kharkov front and the central front with good • results. , A special announcement by tne

Soviet Information Bureau states that some time ago it became known to the Soviet Supreme Command that tne German High Command was planning a large offensive in one sector of the Rostov front. The German Army had concentrated there 30 infantry divisions, six tank divisions and large quantities of guns and planes. To forestall this German blow and to prevent it the Soviet High Command inaugurated an offensive against Kharkov—the occupation of Kharkov itself not being provided for in the operation as planned. TASK ACCOMPLISHED “For two weeks violent fighting has raged in this sector,” stated the announcement. “Now. when this fighting has come to an end, it can be ascertained that the main task —to forestall the blow and prevent it—has been accomplished. In these operations the Germans lost not fewer than 90,000 officers and men in killed and prisoners. Five hundred and forty tanks, 1511 guns and more than 200 planes were destroyed. Our losses include 5000 killed, 300 tanks, 832 guns and 124 planes. “The German High Command describes the fighting around Kharkov as a big victory for the fascist army and gives fantastic figures about the Soviet officers and soldiers allegedly taken prisoner and the technical equipment destroyed. In reply to this invention we can only say that a few more of such German victories and the fascist German Army will finally be bled to death.” The midnight Russian communique states: ‘‘Our troops on Saturday continued to repulse enemy tank and infantry attacks on the Isyum-Barven-kova sector. It is now known that 62 German planes, and not 53, were destroyed on Thursday. On Friday 94 German planes were destroyed. Our losses were 25 planes. A Soviet naval unit sank an enemy U-boat in the Barents Sea.

IMPORTANCE OF SOVIET ROCKET-BOMB (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 29. Russia’s rocket-bomb is possibly the most important tactical advance in air weapons yet evolved, says The Aeroplane. The advantages are hitting power sufficient to knock out tanks which dive-bombing achieves only by a fluke and greater bombing accuracy than m dive-bombing or low-level attacks. “NOT ENOUGH BUTTER AND BREAD” LONDON, May 29. In his weekly article in Das Reich, Dr Josef Goebbels, German Propaganda Minister, refers to the food worries on the Home Front. “Our soldiers march through tne bountiful Ukraine with envy in their hearts,” he says. “They know that at home there is not enough butter ana not enough bread. They know that for three seasons we have had insufficient rain. Since 1914 there has not been enough on our tables. We are sick of fighting for ideals. We want to cash in ” Dr Otto Meissner, German Secretary of State, in a broadcast also referred to conditions on the Home Front. The German workers and the German people, he said, must not fail the armed forces in their life and death struggle.