GERMAN ATTACKS REPULSED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 95, 22 April 1944, Page 5

GERMAN ATTACKS REPULSED

ACTIVITY ON EASTERN FRONT

CURTAIN NOW UP FOR LAST ACT OF DRAMA OF CRIMEA (11 p.m.) London, April 21. German forces have attacked the Russians unsuccessfully at two points on the Eastern front—at Narva, in the north, on the border between the Estonian Republic and Russia, and in the Carpathian foothills, where the enemy attacked for the third succes-

sive day. ' A Russian supplementary communique says: ‘‘East and south ef Stanislowow, large enemy forces repeatedly attacked our positions from two directions. All were repelled with heavy losses. In one sector- alone more thal 1500 Germans were killed. In another area an enemy battalion, which penetrated our positions, was surrounded and completely wiped out.” The outer ring of defences protecting the Black Sea naval base of Sebastopol has been pierced by the Russians, and the Moscow radio says that the “curtain has gone up for the last act of the drama of Crimea.” Fighting over the old Inkerman battlefield, crack Soviet shock troops are now preparing to storm historic Malakov Hill, which proved the key to Sebastopol in two previous sieges, says Reuter's Moscow correspondent. The Germans have strongly fortified the hill, which is the highest point overlooking the city. The Russian Army now advancing from Balaclava has split into two forces, one of which is driving directly against the city and the other, after storming the valley entrance to Cape Khersones, is making for an airport about two miles south of Sebastopol. Its capture would enable the Red Air Force to unload bombs over the city