GROWING ACTIVITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1942, Page 3

GROWING ACTIVITY

ON THE•SOUTHERN FRONT IN RUSSIA IMMENSE SOVIET RESERVES READY. SPOKESMAN'S CONFIDENT DECLARATION. LONDON, April 23. Increased activity is reported on the southern Russian front by both the Russians and the Germans. In some sectors the ground is now hard enough to enable the movement of mechanised forces. Tank divisions are reported to be massing in the Southern Ukraine. Two German counter-attacks on this front were repulsed. The Germans claim to be attacking south-east of Kharkov.

M. Lozovsky, head of the Russian Information Bureau, stated today that immense Russian reserves were ready to go into battle. This, he said, would show how false were the German claims to have destroyed the Red Army. M. Lozovsky estimated that the Germans were throwing nine-tenths of their strength against Russia, and in addition between 400,000 and 500,000 troops whom Germany had forced into service from her satellites.

TANK BATHE REPORTED BY AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT. HEAVY ENEMY LOSSES. LONDON, April 23. An American correspondent, writing from Kuibyshev, reports that in a big tank battle in the far south of the Russian front the Germans lost 126 tanks and 3000 enemy troops were killed. There is no official confirmation of this from Moscow. A report from Smolensk says that the melting snows, as well as uncovering countless dead, have revealed much booty left behind by the Germans. The Russian peasants are gathering a new kind of harvest.