PRESSING ON

Waikato Times, Volume 130, Issue 21690, 28 March 1942, Page 5

PRESSING ON

ADVANCE OF RUSSIANS FIERCE BATTLES RAGE GERMANS FRUSTRATED (Official Wireless) (Received March 28, noon) RUGBY, March 27 No substantial changes on the Russian front occurred yesterday or last night, states the Soviet Information Bureau. I On Wednesday eleven German planes were destroyed, against six Russian machines. Fierce fighting is raging in the I southern part of the central front, | according to the Moscow radio, which states: All enemy attempts to stem ; our advance and the throwing of enemy reserves into the battle are without success. Our troops are conj tinuing their advance and are fortifying at once every occupied position against counter-attacks. A great part in this offensive operation is being played by the Soviet air force. Effort to Relieve Leningrad The Daily Telegraph’s special correspondent at Stockholm says General Meretskoff’s forces in the Leningrad sector are making a final effort to relieve the city before the spring thaw cuts the supply line over the ice of Lake Ladoga. The Russians stormed 20 German forts and blockhouses between Kolpino and Novgorod, resulting in 1800 Germans being killed in the past 48 hours. Crack troops of the Waffen S.S. have been rushed to the front to hold the Russian assault. Reports from both sides indicate that the violence of the fighting is unabated in the Smolensk area. Moscow announces that a total of 16 districts in the Smolensk area have been completely cleared of the enemy, while 10 other districts have been partly cleared. Fierce German counter-attacks have failed to dislodge the Russians from the suburbs of Stalino. The Germans are doing their utmost along the whole front to retain their present forward positions for the spring drive. The increased violence of the Russian attacks is giving the Germans a stern task to hold out until the thaw floods relieve them. The Soviet air force is heavily bombing the trapped Gerrpan 16th Army in the Staraya Russa area. On the land the Germans have repeatedly counter-attacked, but have been repulsed. In cne counter-attack the Germans lost 17 tanks and 1700 men. Admission by Germans German spokesmen admit that the Russians have penetrated deeply into German zones. Consequently the opposing forces are interlocked for considerable depths, says the Stockholm correspondent of the Times. The craziest pattern in this interlocking is across the Dnieper between Kharkov and the Black Sea. The Russians have penetrated spaces without rail connection between strong positions in considerable force, creating Russian corridors, frequently a few dozen miles wide. It is impossible to predict whether the Russians will be able to obliterate the German islands in this region, which is so important for the main spring drive to the Caucasus, now generally expected. Taganrog appears the centie of one such island and figures in today’s .information about the Russian offensive activity. There is little new about the Viazma sack, but the Russians claim further progress in the Rjev and the position of the Germans beleaguered in Rjev is becoming more precarious as Zhukoff tightens the encirclement. The Russians report extreme weariness among the defenders of Staraya Russa where the ICth German Army has entered a really desperate stage. The Germans report bayonet fighting at points between Lake Ilmen and Lake Ladoga as the Russians are utilising the cover of wooded areas before launching fierce thrusts westward. This is the region where the Russians captured 17,000 prisoners in a fortnight. FEROCIOUS BATTLES RUSSIANS STILL ADVANCING (Official Wireless) RUGBY, March 26 A Moscow press message reports that battles of increasing ferocity are raging in the Don Basin, where the Russians are advancing and threatening the most important German military centre in the area. To the accompaniment of the distant rumble of guns thousands of Don miners are obtaining coal from mines originally wicked by the retreating Russians. It is reported that German coun-ter-attacks on the south-western front have failed to stop the Soviet advance. During eight months the 262nd German Infantry Division has lost more than 15,000 men killed, wounded or frost-bitten. The division was reinforced at the end of February, chiefly by Austrians, some of whom are stated to be surrendering on the Bryansk front. Loan For Britain. —The Newfoundland Government has made a loan of 1,000,000 dollars to Britain for the duration of the war.