BITTER FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 3

BITTER FIGHTING

ON THE EASTERN FRONT HEAVY GERMAN RESERVES THROWN IN. ABORTIVE ENEMY RAID ON MURMANSK. LONDON, March 26. In Russia particularly bitter fighting is reported in the Leningrad, Smolensk and Donetz areas. The Germans are throwing in heavy additional reserves on the southern front, backed by tanks and planes. In the Leningrad area 1800 Germans have been killed in 48 hours. The Russians smashed forty blockhouses and forts. In the Far North 100 enemy bombers and fighters attempted to raid the Arctic port of Murmansk. The raiders came over in three waves and lost 11 planes. Their bombs caused no casualties. HOUSE TO HOUSE STRUGGLE FOR STALING. GUERILLAS AID RUSSIAN ASSAULT TROOPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) LONDON, March 25. Tank units and shock troops of Marshal Timoshenko’s southern armies are blasting their way from house to house through the shattered south-eastern suburbs of Stalino, reports the “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent. Guerillas inside Stalino unearthed hidden arms and roused the civilians in the Germans’ rear. One of the heaviest bombardments of the war opened the assault against the city. Five subsequent consecutive assaults brought the Russians into the city itself, before German reinforcements temporarily stemmed their advance. The streets of Stalino ran with blood as the Germans, sandwiched between the Russian regular and guerillas, met a withering fire.

The reoccupation of Stalino is militarily as important., as ..Kaluga, Mojaisk, and Kalinin, forcing the Germans to reassemble supplies for their central Donetz armies well to the west.

The operations against Stalino are reported to have been under the command of General Cherevichenko, who recaptured Rostov on November 29. Russian military circles are optimistic that the result of the Stalino battle will be a further obstacle to Hitler’s spring offensive. STARAYA RUSSA ENTERED. A Russian unit advancing swiftly 30 miles across Lake Ilmen approached the outskirts of Staraya Russa. A ski detachment broke into the outskirts and liberated several hundred Russians from a prison camp. Guerillas within Staraya Russa co-operated with the advancing Russians. In making this announcement the Moscow radio added that the Russians found in Leagnab that not a single school in the town was. functioning. The teachers, under threat of shooting, were forced to burn all copies of Russian classics. Gallows had been erected in the streets and square.

NO MATERIAL CHANGES

ACCORDING TO MOSCOW COMMUNIQUE. RELATIVELY HEAVY ENEMY AIR LOSSES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.3 a.m.) RUGBY, March 26. No material changes took place on the Russian fronts either yesterday or last night. According to the latest Moscow communique the intensity of air battles is however sustained. It is officially stated that 37 German planes, not 31, as previously announced, were destroyed on March 23. Twenty-seven were destroyed the following day, against nine Russian machines.