SOVIET AIR RAIDS

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

SOVIET AIR RAIDS

KEY AXIS JUNCTIONS FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS KURSK BATTLE LOSSES (11 a.m.) LONDON, June 4. The Moscow radio announced that last night a large force of Soviet long-range aircraft attacked railway junctions at Kiev and Roslavl, bombing trains and dumps. Numerous trains were wrecked. Fires were followed by explosions. A particularly heavy attack was directed against ammunition dumps in the area of Kiev, where there were very great fires, followed by huge explosions. All except two" of the Soviet planes returned lo their bases. The Moscow radio announces that 162 German planes were destroyed in the Kursk raid on Wednesday', and not 123 as previously reported. Soviet fighters shot down 114 and the remainder were destroyed by antiaircraft fire. Sixty-two German pilots are prisoners. Only 27 Soviet planes were lost, as three previously reported missing have now returned. The Moscow newspapers reveal that the Russian battleship October Revolution, operating in the Baltic, has undergone a complete relit and is now equipped with British-made multiple anti-aircraft guns. Several other new types of guns from abroad have also been installed. The October Revolution’s guns were used in the anti-aircraft defence of Leningrad. Naval Successes A supplement to the Russian communique states that in the Black Sea Soviet naval units sank an enemy submarine and a tanker. In the Barents Sea, naval units and the air force sank a transport, two guard vessels, and a trawler. In the Gulf of Finland, Soviet planes sank an enemy transport. On the central front, enemy fortifications atul concentrations of troops were shelled. In the Lisichan.sk area, Germans on reconnaissance attempted to reach the left bank of the Do net/, by boat. When the enemy was in the middle of the river, the Russians opened machinegun and rifle fire and wiped out the entire group. The supplement also reports local activities on the Kalinin front, west of Rostov, and on the Karelian front, where one Red Army unit, after shelling, attacked the enemy on a height. The enemy' was taken by surprise. The Moscow radio reports that during the past week the Soviet Navy sunk four enemy transports, two tankers, six self-propelled barges, one submarine, one trawler, three torpedo boats, and three enemy guard vessels.