FACING DISASTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1942, Page 3

FACING DISASTER

GERMANS IN CRIMEA ATTACKS BY SEBASTOPOL. GARRISON. CO-OPERATION OF BLACK SEA FLEET. LONDON, January 8. Allied circles in Stockholm regard the Russian activity in Sebastopol as the turning-point in the battle for the Crimea, where at least 100,009 German and Rumanian troops, under General von Manstein, are now facing annihilation. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent says that the Sebastopol garrison has driven the Germans from a series of strategic positions in the outer fortifications. Members of the garrison at one point have advanced two miles along the main north road toward Bakhchisarai. The Russians launched the offensive when the Germans withdrew some troops to reinforce their units which are retreating from Kerch.

Jn spite of prevailing storms, the Black Sea Fleet is co-operating in the Sebastopol garrison's counter-stroke. A message from Kuibyshev declares that the most important immediate result of the Russian landings in the Crimea is the relaxation of pressure against Sebastopol. It is now known that the Germans gathered seven divisions, including tanks, outside the naval base and launched a big offensive on December 16, and by December 27 they had forced the defenders back till the situation was critical.

Marines from the Black Sea Fl4et were rushed into the line, and they fought desperately and saved the day. German reserves were thrown in to retrieve the advantage, but they were of inferior quality. The picked Soviet units 'meanwhile had begun the landings on the Kerch Peninsula, where the Germans on December 26 had two infantry divisions, one infantry brigade, and a brigade of Rumanians, with considerable artillery and some mortar batteries. Soviet cruisers, and destroyers, appeared in the roads of Theodosja harbour on December 30 and fought a gun duel before crashing straight to the quays. The Russians are now moving

in in an ever-widening arc against the besiegers of Sebastopol. There is evidence from German statements that the Germans regard (he situation in the Crimea as very serious. According to the Berlin correspondent of the Swiss newspaper “Tribune de Geneve,” the situation of the Germans in the Crimea has become critical. German counter-measures so far have failed.'