GERMANS' ENORMOUS LOSSES OF TANKS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 120, 23 May 1942, Page 7

GERMANS' ENORMOUS LOSSES OF TANKS

TIMOSHENKO'S SKILL

Russians Closing In On

Kharkov

U.P.A. and British Wireless,

Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, May 22. ficrh,. descr iPtion of the Kharkov fighting is given in a front line dispatch to Izvestia which says: "On warm, windless and sunny days dust rises thickly above the Ukrainian steepe and the smoke of the unceasing cannonade blankets the horizon. The thunder of cannons and the maddening rattle of machine-guns and tommy-guns rolling across fields is magnified a hundred-fold by the echo. A German scouting plane appears searching for a crossing made by our sappers, anti-aircraft guns roar, and the aerial bandit turns back. From an unseen aerodrome two Soviet fighters had already risen to meet the scouting plane in combat. The sound of machine-guns firing in the skies has reached the earth.

The big several-day tank battle is drawing to a close, with the Germans weakening in their resistance owing to the enormous losses inflicted by the Soviet infantry and artillery, whose initial successes were followed up by whirlwind charges of heavy and medium Soviet tanks, which crushed enemy armoured and artillery fortifications. The Germans have resumed frequent tank attacks on various sectors, but not on a large scale, to avoid losses. They are trying to foil the Russians by small sham attacks in one or more directions simultaneously, sending a larger group of tanks in an endeavour to break through at another place In order to hit at the flanks or rear of the advancing Soviet forces.

However, Marshal Timoshenko's troops are manoeuvring with skill anrl mobility, and are paralysing all such efforts. Reds Astride Railway The Russians are closing in round Kharkov. A message from Kuibyshev says the fighting is growing in extent and intensity, with the Germans generally retreating. Soviet troops advanced six miles in one sector yesterday. Moscow says the point captured in this advance was one that the enemy had to hold at all costs.

The German attacks on Marshal Timoshenko's left flank, between Isyum and Barvenkova, south-east of Kharkov, are being firmly held. The Moscow radio says thlit a swift thrust from Losovaya, west of Barvenkova, has placed Timoshenko astride the railway between Kharkov and the Crimea. Reports from all sources, including Berlin, tend to confirm that the Russian weight is telling in the Kharkov battle.

haS h Tim e J nit , ia^ ve sti » in their city o? KhSw?° S °^ ces round the tho rv! Kharkov continue to force Sore of m t a hlt to bring out more and German r s P nn g reserves. The forX a J a ?A° J iays • the Hessian wive a , re „ attack "ig in wave after • A correspondent of the Rusfields rnnn?i P t[ Iravda says that the neius round the city are a blazing Inferno with crippled Nazi tanks staggering blindly out of battle and cablv r wfth IS r?° ns • locked so inextricably with Russian tanks that the planes of either side can no longer bomb or distinguish friend from foe

Fighting Enters New Phase sav? ne^' spa P er Red Star nh«P iRh B has entered a new pnase. It has now gone deep into in onp!? y « d ? fen £ es and is mostly noint<? Th^ e i? S between fortified E , g n \an k Th b C at?, e e WS w P h a fc e h r Taf S &S ranging for some hours. It says it aninT M ear i y yet , to say how R is ?H°? g i* e , lth ? r sld . e states J' ust where this battle is taking place. It is thought that Timoshenko's attack has been deepest to the north. corre spondent with the tS lan . f °rces says the Germans are !?uu u . •?- mass of machinery, but although this has slowed down the Russian advance It has not stopped it. On most of the Kharkov front tne Germans have lost so many tanks that they are reduced to using some units of 10 or 15 tanks in their counter-attacks instead of 50 or 100. Tanks remain the most powerful German arm, says a Soviet report. That is why the performance of the Russian tanks at Kharkov is so edifying. The Nazis are desperately attempting to salvage tanks, but the Red Air Force attends to them. The Paris radio says the Russians for the first time are using 70-ton tanks on the Kharkov front.

Russians' North Offensive

The Russian communique on last night's fighting was very brief and merely said the Kharkov offensive continues. Likewise the fighting on the eastern part of the Kerch Peninsula. There was nothing of importance on the other fronts.

The Berlin radio says that after assembling 47 battalions in the Murmansk area, the Russians made 129 attacks on the German positions and succeeded in gaining some ground on the Arctic coast.

The Berlin radio admits that two Russian divisions with strong tank and plane support penetrated the main German fighting line on an eight-mile front in the region of Staraya Russa, north-west of Moscow, but claims that the attack was repulsed.

Reports from Leningrad say the Germans recently detached 5000 troops to round up partisans in the Leningrad area. The partisans killed 500 of the Germans, besides destroying dumps, bridges, and railway lines.

DELIVERY OF PLANES

Russia Will Not Permit Use Of

Alaska-Siberia Route

DANGER OF JAP. ATTACK

NEW YORK, May 22

Russia will not permit the delivery of aeroplanes from the United States to Siberia via Alaska, says the Washington correspondent of the Daily News. Alaskan bases are prepared and the army and air force ferrying commands are ready to use this route, but Soviet reaction is not quite sympathetic.

President Roosevelt and Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, are anxious to avoid the longer and more dangerous Murmansk route for aeroplanes being sent to Russia, but they understand that the Soviet cannot afford to fight on two fronts, so the route across the Bering Sea must not be used until the Japanese attack Russia, or both Murmansk and the Persian Gulf routes are severed.