RETURN BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1942, Page 3

RETURN BLOW

STRUCK BY RUSSIANS DIVERSION IM THE OREL SECTOR. RESOLUTE STAND IN DEFENCE OF VORONEZH. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July .7. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent reports that the Red Army has struck at the Germans north of Orel in an attempt to relieve the pressure on Timoshenko’s retiring forces west of the Don River. The Russians under General Zhukov are attacking along a 50-mile front supported by the Russian Air Force and armoured units. German reports, while claiming that the first Russian assault was held, admit that fierce fighting continues in this sector. The Russians, after giving ground under immense pressure, are now apparently checking and holding von Kleist’s hordes, thereby preventing the Germans from breaking through to the great grain centre of Voronezh, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent. This town is also the railroad and oil crossroads between Moscow and Rostov and the Caucasus on the one hand, and between Kursk and Kharkov and the great Volga ports and industrial centres such as Stalingrad and Saratov on the other hand. A Moscow message says that Russian tanks counter-attacking in an important sector of the Kursk front not only forced the Germans to withdraw but also compelled them to bring up strong reinforcements. Russian tank reserves which have reached the front are being thrown in everywhere. Von Bock is striking from three points along the 150-mile front between Kursk and Kharkov toward the Mos-ow-Rostov railway. The German attacks are particularly fierce in the Byelgorod sector, where one arm of the two-prong drive is trying to thrust northward to link up with the othei arm coming from Kursk. “Pravda” describes the situation in the Byelgorod and Volshansk regions as serious.