VALUABLE PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1942, Page 3

VALUABLE PART

PLAYED BY RUSSIAN SOUTHERN FLEET BAR TO ENEMY MOVEMENT BY SEA. AGAINST THE CAUCASUS & OTHER AREAS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 4. Competent London observers note that in any offensive in the direction of the Caucasus which the Germans may attempt the Russian Black Sea Fleet is of first importance. As long as it is active a seaborne invasion of the Caucasus is impossible. It holds the Red Army’s left wing secure and prevents enemy troop movements by sea except along the coast to Odessa, and even that route is constantly attacked and mined.

In 1941 this not very powerful fleet played a most important part in defeating the German campaign. By preventing a seaborne invasion of the Caucasus it saved the Russian left flank being turned from behind Rostov. When the Germans retired from Rostov the fleet took them in the rear, cooperating with the army on the coast round Sebastopol and the Sea of Azov. It destroyed or forced to take refuge in harbour practically all the valuable Rumanian merchant marine, which included 40 ships, averaging 3000 tons. It convoyed ships from the Caucasus to Turkey. It harried the enemy’s communications along the Bulgarian and Rumanian coasts. These achievements were effected in face of constant attack from enemy shore-based aircraft. Moreover, the fleet lost Odessa and Nikolaev, two of its chief bases, and when the Germans advanced into the Crimea only light units could continue to use Sebastopol, its chief base, throughout the period when the Germans were investing it most closely.