FULL-SCALE BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1942, Page 4

FULL-SCALE BATTLES

GING ON THREE SECTORS OF EASTERN FRONT Leningrad, Kharkov and Crimean Areas SUMMER CAMPAIGN GETTING UNDER WAY NO CONFIRMATION OF ENEMY CROSSING OF KERCH STRAITS (By Telegraph. —Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. Full-scale battles are now raging on three sectors of the Russian front. The Moscow radio says tank, infantry and air attacks have been launched by the Germans on the Leningrad, Kharkov and Sebastopol fronts. The Germans began the Kharkov attack on Tuesday night, with intense ferocity. The Russians repulsed seven German attacks in one sector of the Sebastopol front, including one by an entire German division. A thousand Germans were killed. The Berlin radio declared that Russian counter-attacks at Sebastopol were remarkable, not only for the extensive use of mine-jthrowers and mechanised weapons, but also for the masses of human material thrown in. Sebastopol is not only protected by concrete defences and guns, but by hills, ravines and rocky gorges. The Russian defences are comparable with the Metaxas Line in Greece, which held up the German advance for some time. . There is no confirmation in London of Vichy reports that the Germans are across the Kerch Straits. A Moscow message, reporting that the German Army and Air Force are steadily increasing their activity along the whole front, says dispatches from the front indicate that the summer campaign is getting under way, with the Germans at last rolling into large-scale action.