ON RUSSIAN FRONT

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22353, 20 May 1944, Page 5

ON RUSSIAN FRONT

AWAITING BIG OFFENSIVE PICTURE OF CRIMEA COLLAPSE (Received May 20, 2.15 p.m.) LONDON, May 19 The Russians and the Germans on the eastern front are confining their activities to probing each other’s positions, seeking weak spots before the summer offensive begins. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says the Germans isolated along the front are constantly repeating their attempts to improve their positions south and east of Stanislawow and north-west of Tyraspol, key sectors which will play a most important part in the coming battle. Six hundred Germans have been killed in small scale attacks between Tyraspol and Grigoriopol. German patrol activity in the Vitebsk area indicates that the enemy

fears a big Russian drive on the central front when the summer offensive begins. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that Hungarian troops are reported to be using the lull to reach the Russian lines to give themselves up. Debacle in Crimea A vivid picture of the German Dunkirk at Khersones, where they made their last stand in the battle for the Crimea, is given by the Exchange Telegraph correspondent who toured the area. “-The German defeat was accompanied by chaos, disorganisation and disgrace. Not more than 30,000 were evacuated of 220,000 from the beginning of the Russian offensive on April 8 to the end on May 12.

“The Germans planned to hold the first of the three defence lines as long as possible to permit the troops to embark on ships which the enemy command assured them would be coming in in sufficient numbers for everybody . If the first line of forces withdrew then the second was to hold, then the third, but the moment the first line ran the other lines collapsed. Some troops tried to fight back in desperation. Others committed suicide. Some surrendered, but the»majority ran to the sea, where no ships were waiting. The German command sent over 100 ships, which were either destroyed, damaged or forced to turn back.

“I saw the scene of the debacle. It was macabre, unreal. Corpses had been cleared away, but as far as I could see the field was strewn with the litter of an army overtaken by a terrible fear, while the nearby aerodrome was a cemetery of planes.” Population Dispersed

With only 500 pre-war stone houses left of 15,000 and the majority of its population of 100,000 dispersed, Sebastopol is a second Stalingrad, says Reuter’s correspondent after tour of the devastated city. This is the only comparison which fits the degree of destruction suffered by this once charming Black Sea port, with its fine white houses and tree-lined boulevardes. The centre of the town is completely destroyed, and the docks and piers obliterated. Of the original population of 100,000 there were over 50,000 left when the Germans arrived. When the Red Army retook Sebastopol they found no more than 10,000 inhabitants remaining, all of which where living in the outer suburbs.

The 36 years old Mayor of Sebastopol, Vasili Yefremov, who was wounded during the siege of 1941, told Reuter’s correspondent that between April 20 and May 9 the inhabitants were frequently given 10 to 20 minutes to prepare to abandon their homes and board evacuation ships for Rumania. Twelve thousand were thus removed. The civilians were used as camouflage on the ships taking German troops. Women and children crowded the upper deck and were made to wave handkerchiefs whenever Red Army planes passed overhead.