POWERFUL ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 April 1942, Page 4

POWERFUL ATTACKS

MADE BV SOVIET ARMY ON SECTORS UNCHANGED DURING WINTER. AS FAR APART AS FINLAND & SEBASTOPOL. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, April 21. “The Soviet Army is attacking some enemy lines which have remained unchanged during the winter, and is now advancing in sectors as widely apart as Sebastopol and Finland,” says “The Times’ 7 Kuibyshev correspondent. ’’Whiteclad forces in the north, though harassed by low-flying aircraft, claim to have penetrated the Finnish lines and pushed back the

enemy several miles. “Soviet artillery on the bleak hills outside Sebastopol, which have now been cleared of snow, are pounding the well-prepared positions in which German and Rumanian troops spent the winter. The German tendency to conserve air resources, shown by a reluctance to engage in combats, is parallelled by recent tank warfare on the southern front, where the weather is squally. Only small groups, ranging from three to ten tanks, now participate in actions. It is not unreasonable to attribute this to the heavy losses the Germans have suffered in the south since the Battle of Rostov. The Russians claim that in a series of sectors in the south, they have destroyed 125 tanks in the last two months.” “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says Germans are now fighting alongside the Finns on the Svir front, between Lakes Ladoga and Onega. Their strength is not assessable at present. The Germans are believed to be awaiting the reopening of navigation in the Baltic for the transport to Finland of troops and material intended for the Svir front and the Karelian Isthmus. This transport .was greatly disordered when the British surprise swoop against Lubeck smashed a co i n ' siderable shipping concentration. Germans now fighting in East Kalian are probably veterans, from the autumn and winter campaign, as iw arrivals of considerable new units have yet been reported. Another Stockholm source states tnat according to Axis reports, the Soviet Army is now attacking heavily on the Smolensk front, under cover of an artillery bombardment. It is admitted that the German forces are floundering in a swampy forest area. According to Finnish soldiers, th Russians in the north are launching the heaviest attacks of the war. ' The Berlin radio reports that the body of General Yemetrov, commander of the 33rd Soviet Army, was found among the dead on the central front.