NEW INTENSITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 March 1942, Page 4

NEW INTENSITY

OF RUSSIAN WINTER OFFENSIVE GERMANS ADMIT MASS ATTACKS ALONG THE WHOLE FRONT. PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLES IN SPRING. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received' This Day, 12.25 p.m.) LONDON. March 11. The Russian winter offensive has reached a new maximum of intensity, according to correspondents in Moscow and Stockholm. This is borne out by guarded German communiques, which admit mass attacks from Leningrad to Sebastopol. Luftwaffe pilots have reported that column after column of Russian reinforcements is arriving at the front. Because of the reticence of Berlin and Moscow, it is impossible to determine the exact position of the battle line, but subdued German communiques lead the “Daily Telegraph's” Stockholm correspondent to conclude that the German home front is being prepared for further “strategic withdrawals.” False hopes, however, are not being raised in Russia. The Moscow radio reports an intensified drive for new armies with which to withstand the expected German spring offensive. Germany also is feverishly gathering manpower for the forthcoming battles. It is estimated that the Russian winter offensive forced Hitler to throw in at least fifty divisions which had been earmarked for the spring operations. " RUSSIAN GAINS IN LENINGRAD & OTHER / AREAS. SOME IMPORTANT SUCCESSES. (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, March 11. The Russians, according to “The Times” Stockholm correspondent, have further distinctly improved their gen-, eral position iti the Leningrad, Lake Ilmen and central sectors since the weekend. German efforts to relieve the Sixteenth Army and maintain forward posts in the Rjev and Viazma pockets contain an element of desperation. The Russians have made small territorial gains at the Lake Ladoga end of the Leningrad front. The Vichy radio declared that Russian paratroops, dropped on the German line on the Leningrad front, captured twelve fortified positions. “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says the line from the Leningrad front to Novgorod has been developing a marked westward bulge in the past few days. The Russians are believed to have severed the Leningrad-Novgo-rod Railway, at least its central stretch, and to be pressing toward the main lateral railway from Leningrad to Vitebsk.

The Moscow radio reports that the Russians breached a strongly fortified line on the Kalinin front, which the Germans called the Strauss Line, and which Hitler, after his recent inspection, ordered to be held at all costs. It consisted of a chain of fortified villages on an open plain, each village fortress surrounded by barbed wire entanglements, and ramparts of frozen snow, chains of advanced dugouts and trenches. All the buildings were converted into blockhouses and the areas between the villages were covered by enemy fire, A frontal attack against the villages was impossible, but two Soviet units at dawn rushed an area between them, split the German defences at two important points and advanced two miles. The German coun-ter-attacked throughout the day to cut off the wedges, but finally had to abandon their efforts.