GERMAN ASSAULTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 3

GERMAN ASSAULTS

PUSH IN RUSSIA ATT ACKSREPULSED GREAT AIR ACTIVITY (Bv Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONPON. June 3. A savage battle has been fought out on the Kalinin front where the Germans penetrated to the Russian trenches before they were repulsed. The Germans in one sector, after firing 1000 shells against an advanced Russian position, launched a mass assault. The Russians allowed the Germans to come within 150yds range and then mowed them down with machine-guns and rifles. Some ot the enemy succeeded in penetrating the Russian trenches, but they were eventually forced to retreat.

Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow says that a German attack against Velikie Luki lasted for several days in which the Russians were consistently pushed back and lost ground before the Red Army commanders regrouped, struck back, and restored the position. The Germans, although back where they started, struck again and again, but the Russians stood firm. The Germans set great store on the recapture of Velikie Luki which is now a Russian danger point threatening the enemy’s main north-western communications, because, only a few miles west of Velikie Luki, the Mos-cow-Riga railway intersects the main lateral line from Leningrad to the Ukraine which is the German supply life-line behind the front. The Red Army, in the Russian salient between Kursk and Orel, succeeded in beating back repeated German efforts with reinforcements _to retake three important villages which the Russians captured. The Times' correspondent in Moscow reports strong Russian artillery activity south of Izyum. He adds tha the Red Army, despite the Luftwaffe’s desperate efforts to destroy communications, is maintaining the flow of men and supplies by lorries across the Donetz River to their bridgeheads on the right bank. Violent Air Battles

The Moscow radio reports that 500 German planes yesterday afternoon raided Kursk. Some succeeded in penetrating to the town and bombed indiscriminately, causing damage and civilian casualties. Violent air battles developed in which 93 raiders were shot down and 30 others were destroyed by anti-aircraft fire. The Russians lost 30 planes. Soviet long-range aircaft on Tuesday night carried out mass attacks on llie railway junction of Smolensk and the railway stations of Karachev and Krasnygor. As a result of the bombing of an enemy train in Smolensk there were many fires followed by explosions. There were large explosions in ammunition dumps in the area oi Karachev. Direct hits were observed in the Krasnygor area, where there are large ammunition, oil and other war dumps, and the entire area was one conflagration. One Soviet plane is missing. Reports from both sides show that the air fighting in Russia has reached terrific intensity. The German News Agency, states that after a mass daylight raid on Kursk yesterday, the Germans continued their air attacks at night, concentrating against Kursk and the extensive railway installations.

The Times’ correspondent in Moscow says that any day on the battle-front north-east of Novorossisk on which fewer than 1000 sorties are flown by the opposing air forces is regarded as exceptional. Air fights rage without respite day and^night. The Berlin radio says that 15 Russian tanks succeeded in penetrating the German lines on the Kuban bridgehead, but claimed that the lines were closed behind the enemy.