RUSSIANS STRIKE BACK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 111, 15 May 1942, Page 5

RUSSIANS STRIKE BACK

NAZI MOVE FORESTALLED FIGHTING IN KERCH PENINSULA (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) * (Recd. 8.40 p.m.) London. May 14. Moscow announced officially last night that Russian troops under Marshal Timoshenko have struck back at the enemy in the Kharkov sector, and that the Russian forces fighting on the Kerch Peninsula have retired to new positions. Reports from Moscow declare that the Kerch Peninsula is still the scene of a stubborn struggle. The Russians have thrown in all arms, including the Black Sea Fleet. General Kozlov, commander of the Red Army in the Caucasus, is flinging in fresh forces. With the forces on both sides comparatively small on a narrow front, the battle is largely a duel to the death between divebombers, Stormovik tank-busters, and heavy British and American tanks and planes over the entire front. tierman air activity over tile waters of the Kerch Peninsula indicates that the Russians are rushing up reinforcements by sea.

The statement by the German High Command that the fighting on the peninsula had ended in their favour, and that the German troops had raptured a great number of prisoners, tanks and guns, is described in the communique a false. The communique says that the Russian troops retired in good order, inflicting enormous losses on the advancing Germans. In the direction of Kharkov Russian forces took the offensixe and were successful. On other sectors of the front nothing of importance took place. Forty-three G< rman ; ianes w< re destroyed yesterday for the loss of 17 Russian aircraft. In the Barents Sea a Russian warshio sank a 12,000iion. enemy transport. Kharkov is the big industrial centre of the Ukraine, and the most important railway junction in southern Russia. It was captured by the Germans last October. According to the Russians. it cost the Germans 120.000 officers and men killed and wounded, as well as a large quantity of equipment and stores.