RUSSIANS KEEP UP AIR OFFENSIVE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 218, 10 June 1943, Page 5

RUSSIANS KEEP UP AIR OFFENSIVE

Enemy Aerodromes Hit ZERO HOUR ON LAND MAY BE NEAR (British Official Wireless.) (Received June 9, 8.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, June 8.

A special Soviet communique states: “Last night a large number of long-range aircraft attacked German aerodromes, destroying and damaging many planes. Ammunition and fuel dumps were also attacked, and there were numerous fires followed by explosions. All but one Soviet plane returned. , . j , A group of German planes tried to raid Gorki, but were dispersed by fighters and anti-aircraft defences. Two got through and. dropped bombs on dwelliugs, causing a fire which was extinguished. Seven Germans were shot down. The Russians suffered no losses.’ ’ The Germans are still stressing the effectiveness of the raids on Gorki, one of the biggest centres of the “Molotov” tank factory organizations. Berlin claimed today that all the assembly shops, covering 600,000 square yards, were very largely destroyed, and also that the machine tool shops and other vital areas were thought to have been very heavily damaged. There were further signs today that zero hour on the Russian front is only a few days away, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. Though the deceptive lull still hangs over the 2000-mile front, there are reports of increasing quantities of men and materials moving up to the battleline on both sides.. The major land fighting has virtually died down. ' According to Soviet front-line dispatches, local fighting has flared up on the northern Donetz front, both north and south of Kharkov. Fresh German attempts to force the Donetz crossing at Balakleya in the vicinity of the Soviet bridgehead 50 miles south-east of Kharkov, were smashed. A German attack also was beaten back in bitter hand-to-hand fighting in the Byelgorod area. Soviet Hitting Harder in tlie Air.

The Allied air offensive in the West is linking up with Russian air attacks of growing intensity, says the Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph. At present before major land operations on the eastern front are begun, the air war already is as intense as anything known during the Voronezh and Stalingrad battles last year. Russian fighters are tirelessly and daringly interfering with the Luftwaffe s attempts to bomb Soviet objectives such as the approaches to Moscow and Leningrad city, or the vital industrial centres like Gorki, while in the offensive operations the Red Air Force is aiming primarily against the vital railway junctions and stations. , „ ..' „ , The latter is part of the Soviet effort to dislocate the enemy communications and weaken the impact of possible German attempts to take the initiative on land. ' Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Red Air Force’s big attack against the rail junction of the Uneeha, 80 miles south-west of Bryansk, on Sunday night, represented the third stage in the systematic disorganization of the main railway used by the Germans for feeding the Orel salient. The first stage was the heaviest raid yet made against Orel last week, which put this vital junction out of action for days. Bryansk, farther down the railway, was heavily attacked on the following day with similar results. Long lines of trains were then held up at Uneeha, which was hammered in its turn on Sunday night. If Uneeha is put fully out of action it will mean serious interference with the cross-country rail link between the German communications from Orel and those leading to Smolensk.