DEEP THRUST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1942, Page 3

DEEP THRUST

MADE BY SOVIET CAVALRY , IN LENINGRAD ZONE. STRONG ENEMY AIR FORCE ROUTED AT MURMANSK. LONDON, April 13. Reports from Russia indicate that while the general situation is unchanged, considerable activity is developing towards the northern end of the front, round Leningrad. On this sector Soviet cavalry divisions have thrust deep into German positions. The initiative is now firmly in the hands of the Red Army. A Russian communique reports new successes in the Smolensk area. The Russian right flank’ has destroyed a number of German tanks. A Soviet communique reports that Soviet aircraft routed a numerically superior force of enemy bombers and fighters at Murmansk. The Russians under General Meretzkov on the Leningrad front, with a spearhead of cavalry, have driven a deep wedge into the German lines, splitting their communications, states the “Red Star.” The Germans threw in six fresh battalions and used dive bombers in groups upward of 40, but failed to dislodge the Russians. The Soviet President M. Kalinin, in the “Izvestia,” said that the Russians now had absolute superiority in numbers of aircraft, and also possessed more tank divisions than at the start of the invasion. The German army had passed its zenith, the winter campaign had undermined its morale and even the crack troops were now surrendering.