GERMAN ATTACKS

Grey River Argus, 5 June 1943, Page 5

GERMAN ATTACKS

ON VELIKYE LUKI And Kalinin Front ALL OUT AIR BATTLES. [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] LONDON, June 3. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says: A German attack against Velikye Luki has lasted several days. The Russians were consistently pushed back and lost ground before the Red Army commanders re-grouped, 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 Velikye Luki, which is now - a Russian danger point threatening the enemy’s main north-west-ern communications, because only a few miles west of Velikye Luki the Moscow railway intersects the main lateral line from Leningrad to the Ukraine which is the German supply life-line behind the front.

A savage battle has been fought out on the Kalinin front north-west of Moscow. The Germans penetrated to the Russian trenches before being 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 150 yards range and then mowed them down with machine guns and rifles. Some of the enemy succeeded in penetrating the Russian trenches but were eventually forced to re treat. < z' \ # . The Red Army in the Russian salient between Kursk and Orel succeeded in beating back repeated German efforts with reinforcements to re-take three important villages which the Russians had captured.

“The Times’s” Moscow correspondent reports strong Russian artillery activity south of Isyum and adds that the Red Army despite the Luftwaffe’s desperate efforts to destroy communications. is maintaining a flow of men and supplies by lorries across the Donetz to their bridgeheads on the right bank. Both the Russians and Germans are making' all-out air assaults on supplies and communications behind their respective fronts. Last night Moscow radio gave news of a great . air battle over Kursk. It said that 500 German aeroplanes raided Kursk yesterday afternoon. Some succeeded in penetrating to the town and bombed indiscrimiately, 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 aeroplanes. Mass raids have been made by the Germans in the last 24 hours northeast of Novorossislc,' with groups, qf more than 100 aeroplanes operating on both sides. In one sector 37 German aeroplanes were destroyed. Russian airmen have alsb been attacking the German defences covering Novorossisk. The Moscow radio announced that Soviet long-range aircraft on Tuesday night carried out mass attacks on’ the railway junction at Smolensk and the railway stations at Karachev and Krasnygor. As a result of the bombing of an enemy train at Smolensk there were many fires, followed by explosions. There l were large explosions in ammunition dumps m the area of 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.

TERRIFIC AIR STRUGGLES. (Rec. 6.30.) ■ LONDON, June 3. Reports from both sides show that air fighting in Russia has reached a terrific intensity. The German News Agency states: “After making a mass daylight raid on Kursk yesterday the Germans continued their air attacks at night. They_cpncentrated against Kursk s extensive railway installations.” “The Times’s” Moscow correspondent says: “Any day on the battlefront to the north-east of Novorossisk on which fewer than one thousand sorties are flown by the opposing air forces is regarded as exceptional Air fights.rage without respite, day and night.” RUSSIAN TANKS CAUGHT. LONDON, June 3. The Berlin radio says:— Russian tanks succeeded in penetrating the German lines at a Kuban bridgehead, but the German lines were then closed behind the enemjq