NAZI LINE PIERCED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 113, 16 May 1942, Page 5

NAZI LINE PIERCED

RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON KHARKOV TREMENDOUS GERMAN LOSSES Telegraph—Press Associatipn—Copyright) London, May 14. | Marshal Timoshenko’s advance on Kharkov is gathering impetus every hour, and already the Germans’ first line of defence has been pierced. According to a broadcast from Moscow to-night, the Russians ar? now preparing to attack the second line and the city itself. Moscow radio reported to-night that the Red Army has captured a key position on one sector of the front, and went on to emphasise that the offensive is not to be regarded as a mere diversion for distracting the Germans from the Crimea.

A dispatch to the 8.8. C. from Moscow says that Marshal Timoshenko s advance was skilfully prepared and is developing very well. It adds that the Germans arc suffering tremendous | Josses in men and material. German reserves flung into the battle I to till the hiT.ieh in the city's defences have failed to cheek the | Russian advance.

It is stated in London 11 at if; the Soviet attack on Kharkov is . successful, the enemy will be t forced to move up troops from other parts of the fronr, and in any event it must upset German plans for any attack on this salient. Fierce fighting continues on the Kerch Peninsula. The Red Star said to-day that great losses are being inflicted on the enemy • and that the Russians are now in a position to retain the initiative. "Our troops on the Crimean front can and must stop the enemy and defeat them.” the paper declared. "Although it is true that the enemy have been able to breach the Russian defences in one sector, it is sheer nonsense for Berlin to represent this as a reverse of the fortunes of war." The Germans claimed to-day that what they called the beaten enemy were being relentlessly pursued. They also claimed that the port of Kerch and shipping in it were successfully bombed. v It is stated officially in London that the German claims about the Kerch fighting are exaggerated. The dispatch to the 8.8. C. quotes the Red Star as saying that although the Germans may secure partial successes in the Kerch Peninsula, the general balance is firmly in Russia’s! favour. Tho most dangerous and critical days have now been left behind. According to an agency report, the Russians have struck at the enemy on still another front. A j a. new offensive is said to have been ■ launched north and south of Lake Ilmen. This no doubt the offensive referred|i to by Vichy radio, which said to-day , that Soviet forces were making mas- ■ sive attacks on .Novgorod, nortn ol tnep lake and on Staraya Russa, which lies ' to the south. This would also be in 11 line with the German High Command < i report to-day admitting large-scale at-j: tacks on German positions south-east I of Leningrad. j i ON KEECH PENINSULA 1 RUSSIAN “LINE” UNBROKEN i (Recd. 7.20 p.m.) London, May 14. J The Germans in the Kerch Penin- - su Akmanai, which is in the north-west corner of the peninsula, but it took • their artillery from four to five daysi to pound the Russian positions to bits.l' reports the Stockholm correspondent of The Times. The recedence of the;. Russian line apparently about the i miles eastward along the railway and!, the main coast highway does not mean ‘ that the front line or anything similar’ has been broken, because nothing like, lines exist in thp densely-held fort;- i fied Kerch Peninsula, The Russians I. have apparently not withdrawn from 1 the whole mor* 3 hilly southern andp south-eastern parts. Berlin radio admits that the Russian r defenders of Leningrad are heavily! l • attacking on the south flank of the!. ’ German lines parti ilarb lh< region of Kolpino. German reinforce-P ments were sent to this area. Moscow radio, however, says the Russian artillery thwarted attempts to bring up re-| serves. The Russian Kharkov attack was launched against a number of ■ sectors. The Red Army’s first mix* esses there are far greater than the German gains on the Kerch front. A Stockholm report says that both sides are fencing lor advantageous ' positions along the neck of the Viazma "sack." where the Germans are hold- i ing the Smolensk-Viazma railway. The • Germans are making an effort near Smolensk to purge thp countryside c>: partisans, resulting in battles with casualties running into thousands. • GERMAN ‘NERVE GAS” ' REPORTED EFFECTS '■ London, May 13 1 The Berlin correspondent of the | Swedish new.-paper Nyu Daglig? Alic- t handa, who has been expelled from Germany "because he sent news i without foundation." says that the Germans art- using a "nerve gas’’ on th'* Kerch Peninsula. This nerve gas , does not cause bodily harm, but s’uns the soldiers, who wake up prisoners. I Berlin circles claim that the new ; weapon is a “boundary case” in ”ne j use of gas. Vichy radio says that nerve gas achieved a complete surprise on the Kerch Peninsula. The radio adds 1h:-<l it is reporb-1 ] from Bucharest that German chemists arrived in Rumania from th" great chemical combine LG. Farbm- | Industrie to produce poison gases for use in Russia only, and that German and Rumanian workers were employed on a "secret invisible weapon.” CLASSED AS POISON GAS ! OUc-l. 7.20 p.m.) London. May 14. As a sequel to the German attempt tn differentiate between poison gas and "nerve gas," prominent Swedish scientists and a nerve specialist pub- . 1 lished a statement that any gas hav- • ing a paralysing effect must be re- I garded as poison gas. A German military spokesman says I the poison gas which the Russians re- ; ported from the Crimea was probably I emitted by mortar shells from a new ' "weapon." The shells emit poison gas. although a chemical substance has not been actually ' mp'.oyec.