FIGHTING IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1942, Page 3

FIGHTING IN RUSSIA

RESTRICTED BV GROUND CONDITIONS SOVIET AIR ASCENDANCY MAINTAINED. IN SPITE OF ENEMY REINFORCEMENTS. LONDON, April 16. While ground conditions are restricting land fighting in Russia to small-scale engagements the Germans are

using more and more planes in an effort to relieve their hard-pressed troops. Continuous air battles are taking place but victory remains with Stalin’s planes.

A Moscow communique states that during operations on the southern front, Soviet anti-aircraft guns have brought down 386 German planes.

HALT TILL MAY J IN MAJOR OPERATIONS. EXPECTED BY GERMANS. LONDON, April 16. According to the Germans, activity on the Eastern Front has relaxed since the weekend, even in the Donetz Basin and the Crimea, and it is expected that mud will bring major operations to a standstill till May, reports the'Stockholm correspondent cf “The Times.” One of the German High Command’s greatest problems is in combating guerillas, whose persistent aggressiveness is keeping hundreds of thousands of Germans pinned down guarding railways, though the High Command wants to divert them for the concentration of huge armies in other sectors in readiness for the main offensives in May or June. Writing in the “Moscow News,” Colonel Zhurzvlev says that the first week in April, in which it has already been stated that 466 German planes were destroyed, the Germans lost 22,000 killed and wounded on two fronts alone, with two to three times this number wounded. Last night’s Soviet communique says: “On Wednesday no events of importance occurred on the front. On Tuesday 14 German planes were destroyed. Our losses were five planes. Naval forces sank in the Barents Sea two enemy transports of 9000 and 6000 tons respectively.” NEW & GHASTLY ACTIVITY. The Moscow radio says that the Germans at Vitebsk have invented a new and ghastly form of execution. The victim’s chin is pierced with a rusty hook attached to a rope, and the victim is then' pulled up on to the gallows, the hook, under the weight of the body, slowly penetrating the throat. Death comes several days later after terrible sufferings. The inhabitants of Vitebsk have named the invention “Himmler’s Hook.” GUERILLA EXPLOIT NAZI CEREMONIAL PARTY BLOWN UP.' (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 16. A Soviet communique states that a German n.c.o. taken prisoner reported that recently 40 German soldiers were ordered to Staraya Russa in order to be decorated with the Iron Cross. During the ceremony, a great explosion occurred and all 40 soldiers and officers participating in the ceremony were killed. It was ascertained that partisans had mined and blown up the building, but the partisans could not be found.