BITTER STRUGGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1942, Page 3

BITTER STRUGGLE

BATTLE FOR NOVOROSSISK

SUCCESSFUL SOVIET ATTACK WEST OF MOSCOW.

ADVANCE OF SEVERAL MILES.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 9. The Russians announce that the battle for Novorpssisk continues and that the enemy is suffering heavily in the surrounding hills. The battle in the Mosdok area is now on a large scale on both sides of the Terek River, where hundreds of tributaries thread through the wooded foothills of the Caucasus. The Germans have established a second bridgehead on the south bank of the Terek, but this is hemmed, in, like the first bridgehead. The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says the Red Air Force went into action as the Germans attempted to move on from the south bank of the Terek River to encircle a town. Russian bombs caused a landslide blocking a valley, in which 25 tanks and 250 lorries were wrecked and 500 soldiers killed. The Germans retreated into a forest, which the Russians set on fire, driving the Germans into the open, where they were again attacked. Another German force attempted to make a quick thrust along the north bank of the Terek River, but the Red Air-Force shattered the column. The Russians broke the German line in one sector west of Moscow and advanced several miles. Russian artillery is breaking down strong enemy fortifications on the Kalinin front, where a village was retaken and 250 Germans were killed. The Russians are still on the offensive in the Leningrad area. TREMENDOUS LOSSES SUFFERED BY GERMANS. SOVIET GIVES DETAILS. LONDON. September 9. A Russian special communique states: “In the period from May 1 to August 31, the Soviet forces routed 73 enemy divisions, annihilating over 70 per cent of their fighting effectives. Another 21 enemy divisions lost between 40 and 50 per cent of their effectives.” The communique adds: “In the same period 42 Soviet rifle divisions and 21 brigades, including 14 tank brigades, suffered considerable losses.”