GERMAN VERSION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 192, 12 May 1944, Page 5

GERMAN VERSION

Sebastopol Evacuation

(Received May 11, 7 p.m.) LONDON, May 10. A German communique, admitting the evacuation of Sebastopol after extremely hard 'battles, says that Sebastopol had been turned into a heap of rubble by an unparalleled artillery and air bombardment. It adds that the Germans and Rumanians withdrew to the western tip of the Crimea.

“The Russian allegations about sinking German transports are untrue,” it says. “All stocks of war material were evacuated and all important war installations and everything useful to the enemy was destroyed.” “The men of the German Army, Luftwaffe, and Navy and police fought stubbornly and doggedly in the trenches at Sebastopol. They withstood the violence of the Russian assault for three days, but when-the enemy succeeded in breaking in south of the city the German command decided Io give up the struggle,” said the Berlin radio commentator. Vo.i Olberg. He added that the troops which fought in the Crimea were taken back to the south-western tip of the peninsula in a series of well-planned withdrawal movements, and thus the Russians occupied the main battle lines without heavy fighting. The "Daily Telegraph” points out that von Olberg’s phrase, “the German command decided to give tip the struggle,” ;s an unprecedented statement, and says it suggests that the morale of the German and Rumanian troops cracked at the last moment.