BUNS TENACIOUSLY HOLDING DEFENCES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 123, 27 May 1942, Page 7

BUNS TENACIOUSLY HOLDING DEFENCES

GARRISON CORNERED? Soviet Inflicts Heavy Casualties On Enemy United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, May 20. The Times Moscow correspondent quotes a dispatch from Kharkov saying that the enemy is holding on to every inch of territory with his teeth, r*)t counting the cost in men and material. The Russians are nevertheless malting advances and ousting the enemy from favourable natural defence lines.

Concerning the battle of Kharkov the lOxchange Telegraph's Moscow correspondent states that the Germans have renewed their attempts to land paratroops in the Soviet rear and also to aid their encircled garrison—this is the first mention that the German garrison is encircled. The Russians shot down three planes carrving paratroops yesterday and destroyed a large number of paratroops before they reached the ground. The correspondent adds that the Hermans ore sending waves of tank units into numerous counter-attacks, but the Russian forces are unshakeublo.

Renter's Moscow correspondent says German mass attempts to cross an unnamed river in the Isyum-Uar-venkova area were repulsed after fierce fighting. Over 1200 Germans were killed. The Germans in another sector on this front threw in 50 tanks and two infantry regiments, but Russian tank units brought the attack to a standstill while an artillery unit annihilated over 1000 C.erin,ins. The Russians smashed a German drive in a sector on the Kilinin front, passed to the offensive and recaptured three villages, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. Hitler to His Generals Tlv- British United Press correspondent quotes a Stockholm report that Hitler summoned his leading generals to tell them he would not tolerate ttielr demands that he should relinquish the position or com-mander-in-chief. The Russians on the Kharkov front captured an important key position after repulsing a German counter-attack. The battlefield was

littered with German dead, savs the rj ?dio. Russian mortar units and Russian cavalry and infantry ° n , ni , e enf ' m -V following a thpir' vvher > the Germans saw hf u tanks set on fire they threw n their panzer forces in an'attempt 'Au- the The Russian Th U ~ lmate|. v decided the issue. Jhe .latest Moscow communique i i V vllh t , he fighting around Is.vum and l<arvenkova, where a number of Get man tanks have been destroyed and on the Kalinin front, where'the Russians repulsed an enemy attack and killed 200 Germans. The communique, in referring to the north ; western front, says the Russians in one day destroyed 14 blockhouses and 12 dugouts and silenced a number of batteries.

"Colossal -Slogging Match" The German attempt to turn la.'I a .'- S i ia Timoshenko's flank south of Kharkov has readied a new pitch of intensity, said an earlier message. Enemy pressure round the Barvenkova area is still increasing. Today's communique says that during the night Russian 1 roops consolidated positions they had captured in the drive on Kharkov. "The defenders of the Soviet in the south arc smashing the German offensive on the Isyum-Harvenkova sector," said the Moscow radio. "The Germans are suffering heavy losses in this area, where they are using large quantities of tanks, artillery and planes. After an artillery barrage and mass bombing, 150 German tanks made an attack. They were followed by troops with automatic rifles and trench mortars and by infantry. These attacks were repulsed. More than 1000 Germans were killed and many tanks and planes were destroyed. The Red Air Force is constantly attacking." Although it is a terrific battle it is not a blitz, the Soviet newspaper Pravda says. It is rather a colossal slogging match—a real battle of destruction—and the side with the greatest stamina will win. The Berlin correspondent of a Swedish newspaper says a spokesman in Berlin denied strongly that the German offensive had started. He said it would start about the same time as the first German attack on Russia, which was launched on June 22 last year. PREFACE TO VICTORY INVASION OP CONTINENT Rec. noon. NEW YORK, May 26. American newspaper correspondents who have returned from Europe believe that the invasion of the Continent is a pre-requisite for victory. They consider that the internal collapse of Germany is unlikely. Correspondents from the Middle East predict that the Nazis will make a supreme effort to capture the oil supplies of the Caucasus, Iran and Iraq this year. If such a drive succeeds the Nazi junction with the Japanese in India is inevitable, prolonging the war many years. This German move may be frustrated if the Russians can keep the Germans preoccupied from the Black Sea to Murmansk.