FIERCER THAN EVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 March 1942, Page 3

FIERCER THAN EVER

FIGHTING ON RUSSIAN FRONT RED ARMY PRESSING OFFENSIVE STUBBORN BATTLE IN SOUTH. ■ FOR IMPORTANT STRATEGIC POSITION. LONDON, March 25. On the Russian front fighting is growing fiercer. Soviet troops have beaten off German counter-attacks. The Red Army continues to take the offensive and is wiping out centres of enemy resistance and strong points. A stubborn battle is in progress on the southern front for the important strategic centre of “S,” which may be a city 90 miles north-west of Taganrog. The Germans are retreating in this region and bitter house to house fighting is reported. In the Smolensk area the Russians have captured a German key defence post. Another message states that the Soviet forces are effectively using riflefire as well as other measures against the Luftwaffe. One Soviet division to date has brought down 25 German planes by rifle-fire and two others have each accounted for 21 planes.

SECOND FRONT GROWING DEMAND IN RUSSIA. NEED OF DIVERSION STRESSED. LONDON, March 24. In addition to 38 divisions which the Germans since January have transferred to various sectors of the Russian front, large Luftwaffe reinforcements have reached Russia, including transport planes which are reported to be from the African theatre, says “The Times” Moscow correspondent. The reinforced German resistance is most stubborn everywhere ,except at Staraya Russa, where operations appeal' to be approaching a conclusion. Elsewhere the fighting is fierce and bloody, with both sides suffering heavy losses. A competent Russian observer describes the present fighting as as tough as any throughout the war. The Russians’ primary object throughout the winter has been to deny the Germans an opportunity to recuperate rather than the occupation of territory. The Russians have achieved this objective by shrewdly placing constant blows, rather than blindly flinging in masses. The Russian offensive must be paid for and Russia today needs every tank and aeroplane than can be delivered. British deliveries, after lagging earlier, are now on schedule and numbers of English lorries can be seen in Moscow. The topic dominating every conversation an Englishman holds, whether with soldiers, workers, or intellectuals, is the desirability of opening a second front in Europe. It serves no good purpose to ignore this mood and the growing impatience. An article in the newspaper “Krasnaya Zvezda” recently stated: “It is difficult to realise from afar the tenseness of the March fighting in Russia, but if our friends cannot see how thickly the German divisions are gathered on our front, then they need only use binoculars to see how thinly the Germans stand on the Atlantic coast.”

The weather on the Russian front has distinctly begun to break. Frosts are now a rarity anywhere on the front, and rotten snow is hampering the mobility of vehicles, says “The Times” Stockholm correspondent. The German spokesmen ill-conceal their hope that the real thaw is beginning, pointing out that the more difficult transport conditions are unfavourable for the Russians in their present impetuous temper. Though heavy fighting is in progress, there has been little territorial change. The Germans still hold more advanced positions than the Russians hoped. However, the Russians point out that though Marshal Timoshenko’s and General Zhukov’s armies have n<jt achieved the success hoped, and have not completed their embraces across the Dnieper and Viazma regions, they have managed to accomplish most important mobile parts of these enterprises, and may still achieve much -by attrition from the points already reached against the semi-enveloped German armies in the Donetz Basin and between Smolensk and Moscow. The mouth of the Viazma pocket is so narrow that it may yet be closed, while the Rzhev and Gzhatsk pockets may be pounded into smaller compass, if not destroyed. The Red Army has smashed an attempted large-scale counter-offensive on the Kalinin sector, and recaptured several more towns and villages. The Germans continue to abandon position after position and are hastily rushing up reinforcements.

SOVIET CAPTURES AND DESTRUCTION OF NAZI MATERIAL. ACHIEVEMENT ON LENINGRAD ’ FRONT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) RUGBY, March 26. A special Soviet communique states: “In the period from March 9 to March 23 our units operating on the Leningrad front captured six guns, eight tanks, ninety trench mortars, 424 ma-chine-guns, 1,600 rifles, 6,000 shells and much other booty. During the same period our men destroyed 86 German aircraft.”

RED CROSS GIFTS GRATITUDE & APPRECIATION IN RUSSIA. LONDON, March 24. Moscow radio reports that Dr. Divakov, vice-chairman of the Soviet Red Cross and Red Crescent, expressing thanks for gifts from allies abroad, said an Australia steamer laden with food and clothes had just arrived at a

Russian port. Many parcels were also received from New Zealand. “We regard these gifts as an expression of sympathy for the sacrifices the Russians are compelled to bear in the war of liberation.”

AID FOR RUSSIA NEEDS URGED BY POLISH PREMIER. WASHINGTON, March 25. The Polish Premier, General Sikorski, conferred today with dent Roosevelt, after which he told the Press that he had underlined the necessity for fullest aid being given to Russia. The question of supplies for the Polish divisions serving in Russia, he said, also had been taken U P- -