SAVAGE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1942, Page 3

SAVAGE FIGHTING

ON THE EASTERN FRONT RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE DEVELOPING. SOVIET GAINS IN CENTRE & SOUTH. LONDON, March 3. Continued heavy fighting, especially in the south, is reported on the Russian front. Marshal Timoshenko’s forces hold the initiative. Before Sebastopol the Russian attack developed into savage hand-to-hand fighting. Fighting is also taking place on the Kerch Peninsula. On the central front the Russian forces are pushing on day and night. A local Russian break through was admitted by Berlin, which states that German tanks and dive-bombers restored the position. In the Kalinin sector Soviet troops are destroying one fortified position after another. In the Staraya Russa area Russian troops are maintaining their pressure on the German encircled army. At one point five more villages have been retaken. NEW DRIVES LAUNCHED BY MARSHAL TIMOSHENKO. IN UKRAINE AND CRIMEA. LONDON, March 2. Marshal Timoshenko has launched a new offensive in three main drives, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent. The first in a double-pronged thrust north and south of Kharkov, the second is against Dnepropetrvosk, and the third is from the Kerch peninsula. Two German divisions in the Ukraine have been badly mauled and forced to retreat. The Russian force which crossed the ice of the sea of Azov is fighting savagely in the rear of the German positions around Taganrog. Heavy fighting is raging in the Crimea without decisive result. Russian warships shelled the Crimean coast. There is no slackening of the Russian pressure on Staraya Russa, and Smolensk, and also eastward and westward of Leningrad. Russian cavalry which has broken through the German lines in the Leningrad area is now seriously threatening the besiegers’ main line of communication. The “Red Star” says the eleventh artillery regiment is ponding the encircled Germans at Staraya Russa. Observation posts established far ahead of the Russian .positions are keeping landing grounds under special observation. Immediately a plane lands it is plastered with shells. Eleven planes have been thus destroyed in a few days. Considerable Russian air successes are announced in a Soviet night communique, which states: “On March 2 our troops continued their offensive operations. Our troops advanced in several sectors and occupied several localities. On March 1 10 enemy planes were shot down in aerial combat and 67 destroyed on the ground. The total losses of the enemy for the day were 77 planes for the loss of eight of ours.”