USE OF RESERVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1942, Page 4

USE OF RESERVES

INTENDED FOR SPRING OFFENSIVE NAZI EFFORTS TO STEM SOVIET ADVANCE. REPORTED UNSUCCESSFUL. . (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, February 22. More reserves which the German High Command had intended for the spring offensive are being thrown in on various fronts in an unsuccessful effort to stem the Russian advance, reports the “Red Star.” The Germans are offering a stiff resistance on the Kalinin front and also around Leningrad, where new units are being thrown straight into the battle. Regiments from the German Fifth Light Infantry Division, brought from France, were immediately employed in an attempt to stem the Russian advance on the northern front, but were hurled back with heavy losses. The enemy on this front is attempting local counter-attacks, but is unable to check the Russian progicss. Tommy-gunners are inflicting deadly execution in encirclement moves. A Moscow dispatch states that the Russians have recaptured 60 fortified blockhouses near Shlusselberg and that two new Russian thrusts on this front are progressing satisfactorily.

DEBT TO RUSSIA STATED BY GENERAL GOUGH. ; RED ARMY MAY LAUNCH SPRING OFFENSIVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, February 22. A huge crowd attended a public meeting at the big Stoll Theatre in London to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Red Army. Hundreds were unable to gain admittance. General Gough, speaking, said: “Where do you think we would have been today if it hadn’t been for the Red Army. Every German, man, gun and plane which can be spared is in Russia. Russia has saved Britain from bombing and the danger of invasionfor at least eight months. The Germans are now not trying to win a victory, but are struggling to avert defeat. I firmly believe that the Russians are going to win and that the Red Army and not Germany will launch a big spring offensive. The Red Army’s staff work has been magnificent.”

ARMIES IN URALS TRAINED.AND READY FOR ACTION. HEAVY GERMAN LOSSES. (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, February 22. Big Russian reserve armies in the Urals have completed their training and are now ready for action, says the Moscow radio. Reserve air squadrons are now equinned with ,Hurricanes. The' Germans have already lost 250.000 dead and wounded before Leningrad. They lost the same number before Odessa. The Germans are using an increasing number of tanks for counter-attacks on the central front, but they are not meeting with better success than the infantry.

AIRCRAFT LOSSES BRITISH AND ENEMY FIGURES, (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) RUGBY, February 22. Twenty-eight British aircraft were lost during the week ending at dawn today. Over the Continent, five bombers, three aircraft of the Coastal Command and two fighters were lost, and in the Middle East eighteen aircraft. During the same period four German bombers were destroyed over or round the British Isles, three German fighters over the Continent, ten enemy aircraft in the Middle East and five by British warships and a merchant ship.