RUSSIANS AT ISYUM

Southland Times, Issue 25023, 8 April 1943, Page 5

RUSSIANS AT ISYUM

FIRM HOLD ON BRIDGE-HEAD

(Rec. 1.20 a.m.) LONDON, April 7. The Russians are resisting firmly all German attempts to throw them out of their bridgehead on the west bank of the Donetz near Isyum. A heavy attack was repulsed last night. Correspondents point out that as long as the Russians hold this bridge-head the German grip on Kharkov is insecure. A vast movement of men and material is proceeding along the 1200-mile front as the Russian and German forces prepare for the next stage of the conflict. Meanwhile, hard fighting is reported only from the Donetz and Kuban sectors. Reuters’ Moscow correspondent says that the Germans are seriously worried about the Russian bridge-head on the west bank of the Donetz south of Isyum. Its continued existence makes

the German position at Kharkov insecure and consequently bitter fighting is going on there. Daily the Germans are bringing up more planes, tanks and men. A small number of Germans penetrated the Soviet line yesterday, but were wiped out in hand-to-hand fighting. VORONEJ BRIDGE-HEADS The Germans are not likely to have forgotten that the Russians’ grim retentions of the bridge-heads at Voronej last year provided the Red Army with jumping-off places for its great offensive. Berlin radio mentions fighting in the middle Donetz area north of Balakleya, which is 30 miles north-west of Isyum. The radio says that the Germans have stormed a strategically important locality and have reached the Donetz on a five-mile front. Reports from the Kuban indicate that after several days of better weather heavy rain is now hampering the movements of General Maslennikov’s forces. He is using the interval to pound the German defence lines with artillery while Russian Stormoviks are bombing the roads and shipping in the Kerch Straits.

The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says that General Maslennikov is using large forces—the Germans say several divisions —against the Krymskaya sector. This is apparently what the Russians mean when they state that their artillery is shelling a big centre of resistance. The Berlin radio announcement yesterday that the Germans at Staraya Russa had “carried out a successful withdrawal to new positions” is interpreted by a Moscow correspondent to mean that Marshal Timoshenko has thrown the Germans out of the town, although Moscow has not officially claimed its capture. Correspondents say that the capture of this strongly-fortified base may open the way for a Russian drive through the Baltic States north-east to the Baltic Sea so that the German armies still in the Leningrad area may be forced to withdraw to the west to avoid being cut off. NAZI OFFENSIVE EXPECTED During the present period of relative, but obviously temporary, stability on the battle fronts attention is inevitably turned to the prospects of the forthcoming campaigns. Press dispatches from. Moscow report expectation of a renewed German offensive on a big scale in the near future as soon as the ground has dried enough on the central front.

The persistent German efforts to gain positions across the Upper Donetz may point to much bigger operations and these enemy thrusts are also probably dictated by a desire to prevent the renewal of the Russian initiative.

Especially heavy German concentrations are reported behind the front from Bryansk to Byelgorod. In this sector’ the big German salient around Orel gives a valuable pivot for a largescale drive south of Moscow aimed at cutting the railways leading to the capital. Such an operation might be preceded by an attempt to eliminate the Russian salient based on Kursk.