SIXTEENTH ARMY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 68, 21 March 1942, Page 5

SIXTEENTH ARMY

LIVING SPACE CRAMPED GREAT SUPPLY PROBLEM (Recd. 6.50 p.m.) London. March 19. Operations around Lake Ilmen appear to be developing ever more favourably for the Russians, and the 16th. Army’s living space is becoming more cramped, says the Stockholm correspondent of The Times. There are no indications that the Germans lack ammunition for reply to the Russians’ concentrated artillery lire, but reports of a food shortage are fully confirmed by the continuance of the heavy toll* on their supply planes. The great supply problem occurs where Rjev and now the Gjatsk regions are isolated from the great Viazma sack, which itself is on the verge of isolation as the battle rages on both sides of the lifeline

railway between Viazma and Smolensk. ’ The Germans admit that the Russians are not only pressing on the neck but are also launching fresh assaults against the sack itseli with strong armoured forces. It is difficult to judge the weight oi the Russian offensive against thv Orel-Kursk sectors, but farther south it is still heaviest and Kharkov itself now appears immediately threatened. Moscow radio says that troops on the Smolensk front have retaken several more strongly-fortif»?d villages, which were stormed under a hurricane of Nazi fire. A report from Berlin to Stockholm states that the Russians are again Using 64-ton tanks.