UNDIMINISHED FURY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 65, 19 March 1943, Page 5

UNDIMINISHED FURY

NAZI ONSLAUGHT ON DONETZ RUSSIANS SLOW DOWN ENEMY COUNTER-OFFENSIVE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Recd. 6.45 p.m. Londou, March 17. The slowing up of the German counter-offensive in the middle Donetz, a continuation of the German retreat on the Smolensk front, where the Russians are reported to be 30 miles from Smolensk, and the disclosure of a fresh Russian attack at the extreme north toward Petsamo, are highlights of to-day’s reports on the massive struggle on the Russian front. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that, the Russians, doggedly fighting back from the line of the Donetz River, have slowed but not yet halted the German counter-offensive. A desperate see-saw struggle is being waged along the Donetz below Kharkov, where the Germans, despite unceasing efforts, so far have failed to force a crossing and where fortified places are changing hands several times daily. The Russians in some sectors of the middle Donetz are beginning to wrest the initiative from the enemy. The Russians have retained a number of bridgeheads on the west bank of the Donetz, which they are striving to enlarge. The Red Army is firmly defending the Izyum elbow of the Donetz, where they hold a number of commanding heights.

Since the Germans launched their middle Donetz counter-offen-sive a fortnight ago the Russians have strengthened their gun park along the Donetz. This mass of artillery, supplementing anti-tank shock troops armed with longbarrelled anti-tank rifles, is inflicting heavy losses on the German janzer forces. The German High Command is using highly mobile tank squads in the middle Donetz which are switching from one sector to another and punching for suspected weak spost in the Russian lines. Russian reconnaissance noted that these mobile tank squads had moved 60 miles in 24 hours, indicating that the thaw has not yet developed sufficiently tp convert the middle Donetz into a sea of mud. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent says reinforcements are now apparently reaching the hard-pressed Russian troops successfully holding the attacks against Izyum and in the direction of Byeloorod. The German command has concentrated a huge array of armoured forces and heavy artillerv against Izyum. The Red Army holds a stretch of the west bank of the Donetz covering the approaches to Izyum. The Moscow correspondent of The Times agrees that Russian positions in the Middle Donetz front in the past 24 hours have shown a certain improvement and f’’* Germans, although striving with undiminished fury, have not gained ground in important sectors south and south-east of Kharkov. Pushing forward across the Arctic’s frozen wastes, the Russians have reached a point about seven and ahalf miles from Petsamo, from where they are shelling the town. The British United Press believes this new offensive is aimed at pushing the Germans further back in this area in order to give more protection to Russian convoys to Murmansk. Russian patrols are reported to be davancing occasionally as far as the Arctic front. A German army corps of only two or three divisions' is protecting Petsamo. It is called the Edelweiss and is composed of men from the Tyrol and the mountains of South Germany.