POWERFUL AID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1942, Page 4

POWERFUL AID

GIVEN BY SOVIET AIRCRAFT TO GROUND FORCES ON CENTRAL FRONT. 50 ENEMY PLANES DESTROYED IN ONE RAID. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) RUGBY. August 30. in one mass raid on the central front, Russian planes destroyed 50 cut of 80 German bombers on the ground, states a Moscow message. Several other aerodromes were raided, as an assistance to the ground forces who are slowly battering their way through the ruins of Rzhev. The Russians’ positions in that area have been improved. • The .Red Army broke across ll* Volga west of the city and through debris fortified with barbed wire and anti-infantry and anti-tank fortifications. The crossing was made on cable ferries, under a hail of enemy shells and bullets and attacks by dive-bomb-ers. Very fierce fighting is raging near •a former military barracks where each building has been converted by Die Germans into a stronghold. The enemy is constantly rushing up new forces ox tanks and infantry, but the Russians continue to advance in several sectors of this front. The Moscow radio announced that last night a group of Soviet planes raided Berlin, Koenigsberg, Danzig. Stettin and other towns in central and eastern Germany. In Berlin, 48 fires, including seventeen large on.es, and nine explosions were caused. At Koenigsberg there were 29 fires and six explosions, at Danzig eight fires and four explosions and at Stettin six fires and two explosions. All the Soviet planes returned safely. CONTINUED HEADWAY MADE BY THE RUSSIANS AT RZHEV. ENEMY LANDING ATTEMPT SMASHED. (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, August 30. The Russians continue to make headway cn the central front and they have had some local successes in the Caucasus and before Stalingrad. The Germans are doing their utmost to retain the water barriers ip the Rzhev area and are rushing up tank and infantry reserves. Terrific air battles have developed. The “Pravda” says the Germans are fighting tooth and nail for every position in the Rzhev area. A fierce battle is raging west of Substov, where the Russians have occupied several new places. The Russians in the northern and north-eastern outskirts of Rzhev have dislodged the' Germans from more pill-boxes and arc battling on for every house. Fighting is proceeding in the western approaches to Rzhev in open country, where the Germans have dug themselves in, but the Russians are continuing methodical progress. Moscow this afternoon reported that, despite fierce German resistance, the Russians have recaptured four settlements in the Prokhladnaya-Mosdok are. In the Causasus area numerous German attacks have been repulsed. Russian coastal defences on Saturday smashed a German landing attempt on. •the Black Sea coast, sinking ten transports with shells. Not a single vessel was able to anchor near the shore. The attempt was launched from the Kerch Peninsula. The “Red Star” says the Russians north-westward of Stalingrad captured an important unnamed town. Red Army troops, after a fierce battle, drove the Germans from heights governning vital roads at the rear of the town. Other units, after frontal and flank assaults, pushed the Germans into the streets, where the battle was carried on until the enemy remnants were wiped out. GERMAN CLAIM FENERATION OF RUSSIAN DEFENCES. (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON. August 30. A German communique states: “Infantry and motorised units, with strong air support, broke through strongly fortified positions in the Stalingrad area and penetrated deeply into the Russian defence system