ANOTHER BREACH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 March 1942, Page 3

ANOTHER BREACH

MADE BY THE RUSSIANS IN GERMAN DEFENSIVE LINE. PRESSURE MAINTAINED ON STARAYA RUSSA. LONDON, March 11. Russian troops in the Kalinin area have breached a powerful German defensive line which Hitler had ordered lo be held at all costs. The line consisted of heavily fortified villages, each of which represented a small fortress. All the buildings of Hie villages were blockhouses. A Soviet report states that during two days’ fighting on a sector of the Leningrad front twelve fortified fire points were taken and 1,600 enemy officers and men killed. The position of the trapped German army in the Staraya Russa area has not improved. Captured letters show that the food position is becoming steadily woise. RAGING UNABATED BATTLE ON THE SOUTHERN FRONT. THRUST TOWARDS DNIEPER ELBOW. LONDON. March 10. All reports agree that a battle is raging with unabated fury on the southern end of the Russian front, with the Russians attacking over a wide area with large forces, including a tank formation and strong artillery. “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says that one of the most important and also one of the least detailed Russian thrusts is the southward drive toward the region of the Dnieper elbow. The Germans are believed to have sent strong mixed reinforcements there to prevent a Russian descent to Zaporozhe and thence to the Sea of Azov, which would cut off the German garrisons in the Donetz Basin and the Sea of Azov coast. The pocket containing Orel has been tightened by further Russian gains south-west of Orel. General Zhukov has now apparently established himself astride a line from Rzhev to Viazma by the capture of Sychevka, "thereby dividing a large area in two. One pocket contains Viazma and Gjatsk and the other Rzhev. The position of the Germans in the Rzhev area is critical because the sole remaining railway has been cut and there is meagre chance of relief from anywhere except Viazma. which itself is nearing a critical stage, with the sole communication the railway to Smolensk, which for a long stretch is within the range of the Russian guns and is threatened with complete severance any day.