MINOR ACTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 April 1942, Page 3

MINOR ACTIONS

REPORTED ON EASTERN FRONT ARMIES STILL HAMPERED BY MUD. SOVIET TROOPS GAIN LOCAL SUCCESSES. LONDON, April 28. Only small scale attacks and counter-attacks are re- ‘ ported on the Russian front, where mud is still holding up major operations. In the Smolensk sector the Red Army has beaten back German thrusts. Soviet local successes are reported northwest and south-west of Moscow.

DIFFICULT TASK ADMITTED BY GERMAN GENERAL. CLAIM THAT FRONT IS HOLDING OUT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 27. “The German troops in the first month of spring have been taxed to ,the limit of their strength in order to hold the disputed strong points,” said General Diethmar, spokesman of the German High Command, in a broadcast from Berlin today. “Even now the task of the armies is unsurpassably difficult,” he stated. “The Russians broke through our lines at several points, though they paid dearly for this. Fifteen thousand men in one sector penetrated our winter defence line. It is not so easy to mop up these enemy forces. Fortunately, the German front is holding out. Diethmar referred to a great tank battle in the Kerch sector in the Crimea and also to fierce fighting in the northern sector. He added: “Soviet troops are attacking in force and •'.without interruption.”