DRIVE ON SMOLENSK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1942, Page 3

DRIVE ON SMOLENSK

RUSSIANS ATTACKING FIERCELY

ZHUKOV'S TROOPS PENETRATE NAZI SECOND LINE.

HEAVY CALL ON GERMAN RESERVES. LONDON, April 15. Soviet troops are battling fiercely in a drive towards Smolensk. In the Bryansk area, General Zhukov’s forces have broken into the German second line of defence. The Moscow radio states that in ten days’ fighting in this area, one Russian unit wiped out 3,000 enemy troops. Enemy counter-attacks supported by dive-bombers have been repelled. The "Red Star” reports that in the north-west sector- the Germans are throwing in reserves which have just arrived from far in rear. MANY CAPTURES ON CENTRAL & OTHER FRONTS. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, April 15. The Moscow radio states that after a len-day battle, General Zhukov’s forces penetrated a German second defence line in the Bryansk area, recaptured many villages and wiped out 3,000 Germans. At one point the Russians captured a fort by qn attack with the bayonet. The Germans killed and wounded in the past 24 hours on the Kalinin front total 850. Russian Guards have occupied four inhabited places on the central front. A Berlin communique states that heavy artillery shelled an important objective in Leningrad, causing fires and explosions. The Luftwaffe attacked the harbour and aerodrome at Sebastopol.