WARNING GIVEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1942, Page 3

WARNING GIVEN

SIGNS OF NEW GERMAN OFFENSIVES IN SMOLENSK AREA & AGAINST CAUCASUS. AIR BATTLES OVER KHARKOV FRONT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, May 25. There are indications, says a message from Moscow, that Hitler is about to open two new offensives—on the Smolensk front and against the Caucasus. With the evacuation of the Kerch Peninsula it is believed that the Germans are likely to try to strike across the narrow straits to the Caucasus, and a spokesman of the Russian High Command has broadcast a warning that the Germans are concentrating enormous numbers of tanks and guns on the Smolensk front. The midday communique from Moscow states; “DuViijg last night our troops, having consolidated their positions, were engaged in offensive operations in the Kharkov direction. In the Isyum-Barvenkovo sector our troops continued their stubborn struggle with the enemy tanks and infantry. On th© other fronts there was nothing of importance to report.” It is believed that the main fighting’ at present is not in the Kharkov .area but the Isyum area, to the south-east, where the Germans started their coun-ter-drive last week. Moscow states that the enemy in one attack, which was thrown back after driving a wedge into the Russian lines, left 750 dead on the field. The ‘‘Red Star” states that 20 to 30 battles take place daily over the Kharkov front in the Struggle for mastery in the air. The paper adds that -the Soviet Air Force has wrested the initiative and is firmly holding it because of the greater skill of the Soviet pilots and their better aircraft. GERMAN LOSSES OVER 2,000,000 MEN KILLED OR MAIMED. LONDON, May 24. The British United Press correspondent in Lisbon states that it is learned from a reliable source that Germany has lost more than 2,000,000 men killed or permanently maimed since the outbreak of the war. , It is recalled that Mr Churchill stated recently that more Germans had perished on the Russian front than in the whole of the last war. The correspondent adds that Field-Marshal Brauchitsch is believed to have warned Hitler that Germany can afford to lose not more than-2,500,000 men, and that this limit may be reached in August. An official figure of the total German Service dead in the last war was 2,050,466.