SOVIET MASS RAID

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 217, 9 June 1943, Page 5

SOVIET MASS RAID

Railway Junction Near

Orel GERMAN ATTACK FAR BEYOND MOSCOW (British Official Wireless.) (Received June 8, 9 p.ni.) RUGBY, June 7. Moscow radio states, that last night Soviet long-range aircraft carried out a mass raid against the railway junction of Uneclia, in the Orel district. Ammunition, arms and fuel dumps and trains were bombed. There were many fires, followed by huge explosions. One Soviet plane failed to return. Moscow radio also states that the Luftwaffe attempted to raid Gorki, 299 miles east of Moscow (formerly Nizhny Novgorod, last night. About 100 German -planes took part. The greater number of the enemy planes was scattered uy night fighters and anti-aircraft batteries. Only a few broke through to the city and dropped their bombs at random on the residential districts, causing some material damage and a number of civilian casualties. Twelve German, planes were shot down. The Soviet Air I’ orce suffered no loss. Berlin radio claimed that more than 1090 tons of bombs were dropped by hundreds of German bombers.in a raid on the armament works at Gorki. . Massive land forces continue-to gather on the Russian front as the Luftwaffe and the Red Air Force engage in bigger rear-line raids and fierce dogtights, says the Moscbw correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. The fact that the greatest aerial activity is concentrated in the Briansk-Orel and KurskOrel area, only 250 to 300 miles southwest of Moscow, is of the greatest significance. It means that on both sides enormous forces are facing each other, in this area. •Germany’s great offensive in 1943 mayxwell begin here, with its objective the capture of Moscow. , A Soviet communique says:. “Today there was no important change.” A supplement states that the Soviet Air Force sank a German transport, in the Gulf of Riga. In the Black Sea, three enemy barges and five cutters with troops and army supplies were sunk. Yesterday units of the Soviet Air Force, on various sectors of the front destroyed or damag-. ed 66 lorries carrying troops and army supplies, blew up five dumps and dispersed and partly annihilated two in-fantry-companies. , , The Italian news agency says it. is announced from Berlin that Russian troops broke through the first line of the German defences in new attacks in the Orel sector. It is claimed that, the Russian groups were encircled and wiped out in a bayonet charge.

SHOCK FOR GERMANS

Reported Soviet “W Plan” On Leningrad Front (Received June 8, 11 ’p.m.) LONDON, June 8. Reuter's Stockholm correspondent says that the Russians are operating a novel variation of the “W plan’” on the Leningrad front. They are digging tunnels under the German lines, from which Soviet troops suddenly appear in the midst of enemy positions. This is revealed by reports from German front-line reporters. In spite of the protective belt of swamps round the enemy positions on the Leningrad front, the Russians, taking advantage of the soft ground, are digging tunnels into which they push concrete tubes about a yard in diameter. Russians creep through the tubes, appearing suddenly among the enemy. The Germans say that the Soviet ruse was betrayed by air holes which the Russians are compelled to maintain on the surface to provide ventilation. The “W Plan,” which was first described by Colonel Graham Seton-Hutchi-son in a book of that name published, inthe last war, was a scheme for digging tunnels from one’s own line trenches into or behind the enemy’s front line. Adaptations of the scheme were actually started to break up trench warfare toward the end of the last war.

AIR WAR IN KUBAN

Russians’ Success In Allied Planes

LONDON, June 7. Great numbers of Russian-manned Spitfires, Hurricanes. Tomahawks and Douglas planes are being used in the aitwar in the Kuban, according to reports from Berlin, says Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent. The reports state that the efficiency of the Russian airmen has increased, and admit that the Germans have suffered losses, Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that the latest figures show that the Germans have lost nearly 5000 planes in Russia in the last three months.