NAZIS SURROUNDED

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

NAZIS SURROUNDED

POSITION AT GZHATSK London, March 19. Information reaching London suggests that th»* Soviet troops are still heavily attacking the Germans in face of strong opposition and the Germans say that the Soviet forces are using •‘super-heavy tanks.” Moscow messages show that on most sectors the Russians are still advancing. One Moscow report says that the Russians have now surrounded the Germans at Gzhatsk, about 10" miles west ot Moscow and the nearest point to the capital still in the occupation of the enemy. Gzhatsk lies within a zone of much hitter fighting between Rjev snd Viazma. Another report savs that the Russians have pushed the Germans still further back on the Kharkov front. Here the Soviet troops smashed repeated attempts by the Germans with tanks, planes, and artillery to relieve forces which had been gravely threatened. The Russians have penetrated the German line between Rjev and Viazma, v lO according to a Moscow report are now advancing along the Viazma-Smolensk road. Russian cavalry forced the Germans to retreat from an important inhabited locality on the Donetz front, dynam.ted a ra lwa\ and dislocated German supply tta:ns. and cut telephonic co umunfcat.ons. Reports iia\e reached Stockholm that Russian motor-sledges attacked Finnish pos’ticns across the ice o* Lake Ladoga. Moscow reports that two Russian school boys, using hand grenades, killed 10 Italian soldiers in a village in the Stalino area of the Donetz Basin. HEAVY NAZI LOSSES PARTISAN ACTIVITIES IN UKRAINE Rugby. March 19. The Russians are continuii g to nflict heavy losses of men and material on the Germans, according to details given in a suj plem< nt to the Soviet night one sector of the central front, during five days of fighting, the Russians have destroyed 34 block-houses an i 116 dug-outs and killed 3000 officers and men. In oi • in the course of fierce fighting ovei several daj s n< a ge town Twenty-e ght bl< k- h >us< s ver* taken here. Moscow reports that savage counter-attacks have been made by newly-arrived German reserves oh the south-western front. They were defeated by the Russians, with heavy losses to the enemy, and the Russian forces continued to advance. Partisan activities in the Ukraine are growing, says Moscow radio, and severe losses are being inflicted on the Germans. A partisan group in the Kharkov district occupied eignt villages. Several months ago the group comprised aoout 30 men; now there are several hundred, all well armed with weapons captured from the enemy. The headquarters of a large German command was routed by another group. A third group carried out a raid on (he German garrison in the town of "A." The mid-day Sov.et communique says that no essential changes took r.lace on the front last night but that Russian naval units sank an enemy transport of 3500 tens in the Barents Sea. Reports reaching London indicate that the weather in the Crimea has broken and that there is heavy rain and mud.- 8.0.W.