NAZI THRUSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1942, Page 3

NAZI THRUSTS

APPARENT AT SEVERAL POINTS ISOLATED ENEMY GROUPS WIPED OUT. ' AFTER CROSSING DON. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 7. Last night’s Moscow communique reports battles west of Voronezh, the key town across the Don, 130 miles from Kursk. The communique also reports fighting at Staroi Oskol, 60 miles south-west of Voronezh, stating that the Russians withdrew from several places. This news may indicate that Marshal von Kleist intends to converge on Voronezh from the two directions. The position further south toward Kharkov is not so clear, but there is no suggestion that the enemy pressure has weakened. Moscow reports stubborn fighting at an unnamed river, which may be the Don. Attacks were repulsed and isolated groups which had succeeded in crossing were accounted for. The recently increased danger to the Russians is evident. As the Germans approach the Moscow-Rostov railway they threaten the main supply line for the southern Russian armies and at the same time there is a danger of Field Marshal von. Bock’s forces swinging round to attempt to isolate the Russian forces to the south.

POSITION OBSCURE SOME; PENETRATION OF SOVIET LINES. BUT FLANK POSITIONS HELD. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, July 7. The Soviet mention of bitter fighting reveals that although the great German drive from Kursk and Volchansk has made its deepest penetration in the northern sector it is being stoutly resisted. Mention of fighting south-west of Stary Oskol shows that the Russian forces in the centre are still resisting well to the west of the deepest German threats. No light on the situation at the southern end of the offensive is shed in the new Soviet reports. Kupiansk and Valchansk were the places last mentioned in that sector, but there is reason to suppose that the Germans

have penetrated behind the original Russian positions in the Volchansk and Byelgorod areas and are being fought in the neighbourhood of the Oskol River, north of Valuiki.