GERMANS ON THE EASTERN FRONT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1942, Page 3

GERMANS ON THE EASTERN FRONT

Mounting Totals of Russian Booty INCLUDING MANY BRAND NEW LORRIES AND CARS RAPID PROGRESS IN SMOLENSK, DONETZ AND OTHER AREAS LONDON, February 4. In Russia violent engagements are in progress on the approaches to several important towns in the Smolensk region. In their retreat the German troops are being harassed by Russian dive-bombers and by ski troops attacking from all directions. ' ■ In the rear of the German positions fighting is almost equally furious. The Russian civil population is joining in the battle of liberation. Some idea of the speed and effect of Marshal Timoshenko’s blows in the Donetz region is given in particulars of booty recently taken. This includes nineteen heavy howitzers, dozens of tanks and several thousand lorries and cars. Twelve hundred of these lorries and cars are brand new, apparently having been just sent up to the Donetz front from factories in Germany. Further progress by the Russians in their attacks on German positions in the Leningrad area is reported. The “Izvestia” reports violent fighting in the mountainous region near Sebastopol. Workers have joined in the battle.