STRONG SOVIET ATTACKS

Southland Times, Issue 24765, 9 June 1942, Page 5

STRONG SOVIET ATTACKS

NAZI OFFENSIVE ANTICIPATED VIOLENT AIR BATTLES OVER SEBASTOPOL (Rec. 8 pun.) LONDON, June 7. The Germans admit powerful Russian attacks on the Leningrad front, which neutral correspondents believe to be a prelude to a general Russian offensive on this front, anticipating the German offensive, which is expected at any moment. , . . , . Violent air battles are being fought out over Sebastapol as a result ot the new German drive against this base. Russian Stormoviks are pounding German mechanized units moving up on the stronghold. Red Star reports that masses of German bombers are indiscriminately attacking Sebastopol, but the electricity and water supply have. not been , damaged and communications are intact.

No important military objectives have been hit. Twenty-six German planes have been shot down m this area m the past three days. . , A Soviet communique states that tne enemy has been repulsed with heavy losses after three days serious fighting on the Sebastopol front. Elsewhere there have been local. engagements and reconnaissance activity. SUCCESS IN AIR

During the week ending on Satiyday the Germans lost 528 planes and the Russians 151. , x x— A supplementary communique states that Soviet flyers on Saturday destroyed or damaged 10 tanks, 60 lo rne ? and other armaments and routed and partly annihilated three infantry companies. , , r x In a sector of the north-western front a Soviet unit dislodged the enemy from two localities and routed two German battalions and a platoon of Danish volunteers and took prisoners and booty. One Red Army unit on the Kalinin front in the past 10 days has killed over 700 Germans, while another 400 enemy dead were left on the battlefield after an engagement on the Briansk front. Partisans in the Leningrad district in one month killed over 2000 Germans, destroyed 18 tanks, blew up six ammunition dumps and four oil stores, and derailed four military trains. SIGNIFICANT FACT

The fact that already nearly half the year has gone by and Germany has not yet launched her full-scale offensive is felt in London to be significant. The German success on the Kerch Peninsula, it is felt, has been largely neutralized by Germany’s failure further north in the Kharkov area. With Sebastopol still in Russian hands and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet intact a German advance towards the Caucasus across the Kerch Straits would prove a highly dangerous offensive. The power and spirit of the Russian armies as displayed in the Kharkov battles are seen as the most important feature of the recent fighting on the Eastern Front.