LOCAL CLASHES IN RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23970, 10 June 1943, Page 5

LOCAL CLASHES IN RUSSIA

“Zero Hour Only A Few Days Away” MOVEMENTS TO FRONT LINE (N.Z Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. June 9. Although to-day’s Soviet communique reports merely local clashes, there are further signs that zero hour on the Russian front is only a few days away. The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says that although a deceptive lull still hangs over the 2000mile front, there are reports of increasing quantities of men and ma-t-rials moving up to the battle line on both sides. Major land fighting has virtually died down, and is now confined to tentative efforts by both sides to nibble away against enemy positions, probe for weak spots, and make local improvements in their dispositions. These minor but significant movements are continuing at a number of points along the front. A German military spokesman said that after the repulse of four major Soviet offehsives against the Kuban bridgehead, a lull had set in on the entir. eastern front, but the Russians were evidently determined to continue the battle for the bridgehead. According to Soviet front-line dispatches, local fighting has flared up on the northern Donets front, both north and south of Kharkov. Fresh German attempts to force a crossing of the Donets near Balakleya, near the Soviet bridgehead, 50 miles south-east of Kharkov, have been smashed. A German attack was also beaten back in bitter hand-to-hand fighting in the Byelgorod area. Soviet Air Operations The Allied air offensive in the west is linking up with Russian air attacks of growing intensity. The Moscow correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph” says that at present, before the beginning of major land operations on the eastern front, the air war is already as intense as anything known during the Voronezh and Stalingrad battles last year. The Soviet air operations are both defensive and offensive. Russian fighters are tirelessly and daringly interfering with the Luftwaffe’s attempts to bomb Soviet objectives, such as the approaches to Moscow and Leningrad, and vital industrial centres such as Gorky, while in offensive operations the Red Air Force is aiming primarily against vital railway junctions and stations. The latter is part of a Soviet effort to dislocate enemy communications and weaken the impact of possible German attempts to take the Initiative on land. Guerrillas behind the enemy lines are working towards the same end as the Soviet air offensive by blasting roads, wrecking trains, and stripping telephone lines. The guerrillas also- co-operate with Soviet bomber operations by messages transmitted by radio. The correspondent adds that the great bulk of Soviet bombers are Soviet made, but British and American aeroplanes arriving along the northern route and also through the Persian Gulf are already making themselves felt. A special Soviet communique states that on Monday night a large number of long-range aircraft attacked German aerodromes, destroying or damaging many aeroplanes. Ammunition and fuel dumps were also attacked, and there were numerous fires, followed by explosions. All but one Soviet aeroplane returned. A group of German aeroplanes tried to raid Gorky, but were dispersed by fighters and the asti-aircraft defences. Two got through and dropped bombs on dwellings, causing a fire, which was extinguished. Seven German aeroplanes were shot down. The Russians suffered no losses. Supplies Disorganised Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Red Air Force’s big attack against the rail junction of Unecha on Sunday night, in which fires and explosions were observed among ammunition dumps, arms .and fuel stores, and military trains, represented the third stage in the systematic disorganisation of the main railway used by the Germans for feeding the Orel salient. The first stage was the heaviest raid yet against Orel, last week, which put out of action this vital junction for days. Bryansk, further down the railway, was heavily attacked the following day, with similar results. Long lines of trains were then held up at Unecha, 80 miles southwest of Bryansk, which was hammered in its turn on Sunday night. If Unecha is fully out of action, it will mean serious interference with the cross-country rail link between the German communications from Orel and those lending to Smolensk, Reuter’s correspondent adds that valuable evidence of the effect of the Soviet air offensive u coming from German prisoners and from Russian guerrillas. The persistency and accuracy of the Soviet bombing are beginning to depress German troops m the affected sectors. A large German barracks in one town was reduced to a shambles in a few minutes, and 1500 Germans were buried under the ruins. . . . The Germans are still emphasising the effectiveness of their raids on Gorky, one of the biggest centres of the Molotov tank factory organisations. Berlin claimed that all the assembly shops covering 600.000 square yards, were very largely destroyed, and that machine tool shops, press shops, and other vital areas were very heavily damaged. “ GERMANY HAS LOST WAR ” REPORTED STATEMENT BY M. DALADIER LONDON, June 8. "I congratulate myself upon having declared war against you in 1939. A year later you would have been so far ahead in your preparation that you would doubtless have'won the war. To-day it is my pleasure to inform you that you have irremediably lost," saidM. Edouard Daladier, the former Prime Minister of France, on March 31. when taking leave of a German officer who escorted him to Germany from his place of detention in Prance with M. Leon Blum and General Gamelin. The Germans asked General Gamelin if he wished his wife to accompany him. General Gamelin replied; “I have no favour to ask or obtain.” These incidents, according to the Berne correspondent of the “New York Times,’’ are reported in a clandestine French newspaper which has reached Switzerland. BARGES BUILT IN SWEDEN USE BY GERMANS FOR ESCORT DUTY (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 8. A Swedish sailor told the Stockholm newspaper “Arbetaren” that Germany was using Swedish-built motor barges for escort duty The newspaper published a photograph of one of the barges flying the Nazi flag. It commented that Sweden was making 41 of these barges for Germany. It is recalled in London that when Britain recently protested against Sweden building these ships for Germany, the Swedish Foreign Office claimed that they were fishing vessels, unsuitable for military purposes.