HEAVY FIGHTING ON CENTRAL FRONT

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22202, 20 February 1942, Page 5

HEAVY FIGHTING ON CENTRAL FRONT

Important Russian Advances Germans On Defensive In South By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. 12.54 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 19. The Moscow radio said the Russians on the central front had occupied an enemy centre of resistance and driven a deep wedge in the German lines. The Russians fighting in the Bryansk area recaptured the village of Zahorovs, west of Bryansk, which the Germans had converted into a strong point. Guerrilla and raiding activity has Increased on the Ukraine front and the southern front. Guerrillas in the Kharkov region are much stronger and are threatening the German communications. The Red Army has also begun large scale attacks westward of Kerch Peninsula. Russian transports poured in supplies to Kerch. Fighting is raging on a broad front north-east of Theodosia. According to the Berlin radio, the Germans recaptured the railway stations at Chuduvo, Bologoie and Vyshivolochek where they claim to have completely surprised the Russians by using new and particularly fast tanks which assisted in the reoccupation of Vyshnivolochek. The Germans say they are fiercely counter-attacking and violent fighting is raging between Rjev and Viazma and at Bordodino; The Russians are heavily attacking on the central front and have launched 13 assaults on one point in the last few days. The Germans scarcely attempt to disguise the fact that their aggressiveness has been resumed earlier than was intended because the German soldiers prefer even the semblance of offensive action to passive acceptance Of the Russian hammering, thus local attacks and counter-attacks are the order of the day over large tracts in the Orel and Sukhinichi region, which has apparently been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting this week. The Russian attacks further south, says the Stockholm correspondent of "The Times,” continue relentlessly. The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” describes an important battle on the south-western front in which all branches of the Russian striking force co-operated in an attack against well prepared German defences. The Soviet reports of the fighting on the central front (where the Germans said the Russian troops who had broken through toward Viazma from the south-east had been mopped up) state that the Germans tried to straighten out the Russian wedge and surround the advanced Russian troops. The heroism of the Russians in repulsing the attacks is praised. The Germans attacked the forward points and flanks of the wedge and in doing so lost 400 officers and men killed. The Russians claim further local progress in the Leningrad area. Russian troops have captured three more towns on the central part of the vast battlefront. It was announced from Moscow that more than 500 Germans were annihilated in the - battles and considerable quantities of war materials were taken. Berlin admits that the Russians are attacking fiercely along the whole front. At one point, the speaker said, the Russians had launched 13 attacks in the last few days. Particularly violent fighting is going on at Borodino, 20 miles west of Mojalsk, and along the line between Rjev and Viazma. Reports from Vichy state that the Russians have entered Novgorod. The Russians, on the central front, captured the town of Stiar, 36 miles north-east of Bryansk, capturing 71 guns and more than 1000 trucks and lorries. Pressure on Southern Fronts The Germans are making every effort to stop the Russian advance on the southern fronts. They brought up reserves on the Donetz front, but the Russians inflicted severe casualties on them. The Germans also reinforced the Crimean front. The Gerqjans south of Kharkov are finding great difficulty in maintaining their forward positions, which, presumably are Important in the plans for a spring offensive. The tenacity with which they are defending these positions supports the belief that they have been ordered to hold them at all costs. Russian frontal attacks on this part of the front have not produced any general German withdrawal, but the Germans defending Taganrog failed to take adequate precautions against attack across the ice. The Russians, according to the Germans, came in unexpectedly strong forces across the ice on the Sea of Azov, and a large part of them were able to infiltrate with plentiful various equipment. This has intensified the feeling of insecurity of the Germans manning the frontal zones, especially those around Taganrog, who were already disturbed by Marshal Budenny’s cavalry descending from Losovaga, threatening the Germans’ rear lines in the Donetz Basin. What these well-armed raiders have already accomplished cannot be summarised owing to paucity of detail, but the German headaches appear to be due to the realisation that junction of these forces from the Sea of Azov, which is highly possible if not already achieved, would virtually encircle large units of Germans. The Germans’ anxiety seems to confirm that Marshal Timoshenko’s energy and initiative have already greatly complicated, and even frustrated, the Germans’ plans for an early push to recover Rostov before a general offensive is initiated toward the Caucasus.

Russian Pressure on Novgorod The Russians, according to the Associated Press correspondent, are threatening Novgorod after crushing formidable German counter-attacks. The Leningrad radio declared: “Active operations on this front are in full swing. Our units on General Feduninsky’s sectors killed 700 Germans in the last two days and destroyed or captured much war material.” The Moscow radio stated that the Russians on the Kalinin front routed a concentration of German infantry by a sudden thrust. The remnants ran toward a village to rejoin other German units, but the Russians rushed the village and threw them out. The “Red Star” says that Russians operating in the German rear on the Kalinin front have killed 1400. The German radio reports that heavy fighting is proceeding on the Rjev-Viazma front, and admits that the German forces have moved there in considerable numbers from the Orel front. A German military spokesman stated that the East front is now consolidated. “We have overcome the December crisis and improved our supply lines, which are quite safe, and have brought reserves into action. The present defence lines are strong and well-organised. They will be held at any cost until spring as a starting-point for the spring offensive.”