GREATLY EXAGGERATED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 114, 18 May 1942, Page 5

GREATLY EXAGGERATED

GERMAN CLAIMS IN KERCH ARE'. London. May 15 The Moscow correspondent of th( British United Press slates tna Kerch city is still in Russian hands according to messages received then early this morning which state tha the German claims that tremendou armies and air forces are involved ii the Kerch Peninsula appear to b< greatly exaggerated. Il is reporter that a Russian tank trap extend from the north coast to the souti coast -of Kerch Peninsular six to nim Moscow radio announced this morn ing a Soviet advance on the Lenin grad front, where the enemy is sus taining heavy losses in trying to hoi on to his second line of defence. The German news agency says tha the Russians on the Donetz front ar using a mammoth tank which is a: “armoured colossus.” Reuter s correspondent on the Ger man frontier says that an Axis dis

patch from the Ukraine front stales that the Russians crossed the Donet.: River and reached a point several miles towards Kharkov. Th< Germans are retiring slowly “while » a.- ’ of which is imminent. In a further dispatch, the correspondent discloses that powerful Russian armoured forces began the Kharkov offensive on May 13 and smashed across the Donetz on a front of 35 miles between Volchansk and Chuguyev. Axis reports state that the Russians launched a new attack against the Germ i Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov, but claim that the attack was repulsed after bitter lighting. A Moscow communique states that stubborn lighting continued last nigi.. in the Kerch Peninsula and that the Russians in the direction of Kharkov continued tivir offensive operations. Nothing important occurred in other sectors. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that the latest news from the Kharkov front states that the Russians are still advancing. A Vichy radio message from Berlin says that the Germans and Rumanians, despite fierce opposition, have encii de all theii main objectives on the Kerch Peninsula.