HEAVY AXIS ATTACK IN BESSARABIA

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 193, 13 May 1944, Page 7

HEAVY AXIS ATTACK IN BESSARABIA

Lower Dniester Bridgehead RECONSTRUCTION WORK AT ■ SEBASTOPOL (By Telegraph.—Press Assui—Copyright.) LONDON, May 11. There has been a new turn in the fighting in Russia. Tonight’s Soviet communique says that Red Army troops at .their bridgehead on the River Dniester, north-west of Tiraspol, have been beating off attacks by large forces of enemy tanks and infantry, and inflicting heavy losses on them in men and material. This bridgehead is east of Kishinev, the Bessarabian capital. . , , Yesterday the Russians smashed 74 German tanks and shot down 45 aircraft. Russian squads are still clearing the German dead from the ruins of Sebastopol. The reconstruction of the city began as soon as the last German had left. Russian architects began work on the plans for this long before, the Russian assault against the Crimea was launched. Sebastopol evidently was taken after a tremendously heavy artillery bombardment which, reduced the city to a complete ruin arid enabled the attackers to overwhelm the garrison in an unexpectedly short time (says British Official Wireless). Tolbukhin’s army will now be released for the summer campaign in the south. x . A German military commentator admitted tonight that one Rumanian division and one German division were still In the Crimea, says the “Daily Mails Stockholm correspondent. It is estimated here that two divisions would comprise about 20,000 men, who are probably trapped, adds the correspondent. The commentator also referred to big battles between German troops and Russian guerrillas south of Polotsk, in which the Germans, in the course of three weeks fighting, destroyed 102 guerrilla camps, 180 tanks and 82 strongpoints, and killed over 6000 guerrillas.