FURTHER ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1942, Page 3

FURTHER ADVANCE

FORESHADOWED IN BRITAIN SOVIET HIGH COMMAND RETICENT. “OPERATIONS CONTINUED.” (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.42 a.m.) RUGBY, January 26. British Press messages from Moscow and Stockholm foreshadow an announcement of further extensive Russian advances in the central sector but the Soviet’ High Command, for the present, confines itself to reporting: “Active operation against German and Fascist troops were continued during the night.” Berlin radio reports fierce battles south-eastward of Lake Ilmen, where the Russians launched several tank attacks after considerable artillery preparation. The Russians, it adds, attempted to land a force in the rear of the German troops around Sebastopol, but the German coast defences compelled the Russian ships to turn back.

The Soviet Information Bureau, refuting a German claim that'the Russians lost more than 1,000,000 dead in the past six weeks, says the Soviet losses in men killed in this period totalled 30,000.

A special Moscow communique lists the booty captured on the central front between January 16 and 25, in which period 694 inhabited localities were liberated and more than 12,000 Germans killed. The booty includes sixty-nine tanks, five armoured cars, 268 guns, 384 machine-guns, 1842 rifles, 1979 motor vehicles, more than 100,000 shells, 20,000 air bombs and nearly 2,000,000 cartridges.

Marshal Timoshenko’s armies operating southward of Kharkov are reported in a Stockholm message to have advanced 50 miles in two days. Moscow radio said the Russians on the south-western front advanced thirteen miles in the past twenty-four hours and recaptured thirteen villages. Germans with tanks attempted to counter-attack but failed.

The “Daily Mail’’ says it is reported from Vichy that the German losses on the Russian front in January have been more than 500,000, of whom 300,000 died of typhus, pneumonia, frostbite or exposure. Much disease has resulted from the slowing down of the food transport, in consequence of which the men are constantly short of rations. The physical condition of the troops is described as terrible. Uniforms are in tatters, and sandbags are often wrapped round the feet to keep snow-rotted boots intact. Maintaining the elements of surprise in their offensive, the Russians made a night march of 16 miles over waist-deep snow through woods and reached the outskirts of Andreapol undetected. They were able to assault from both sides, though the approaches were mined. The swift seizure of this point has cut off the Germans’ retreat to Salijarovo. The “Red Star” says that with the recapture of Uvarovo, military operations have been transferred from this sector to the Smolensk region.