STILL RESTRICTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1942, Page 3

STILL RESTRICTED

FIGHTING IN RUSSIA BOTH SIDES ACTIVE IN SMALL-SCALE ATTACKS. ACHIEVEMENT OF DEFENDDERS OF SEBASTOPOL. LONDON, April 30. On the Russian front fighting is still restricted to small scale attacks and counter-attacks. Both sides are active. In the Smolensk sector the Red Army succeeded in beating off German thrusts. In the north the Finns report strong Russian attacks in Eastern Karelia. The Moscow radio in a special broadcast from Sebastopol, said the city had withstood the German seige for six months. The Russians were still masters of the Black Sea and were ready for a fresh onslaught. The Germans ■were bringing up strong reserves. The “Red Star” states that the defenders of Sebastopol have already accounted for 45,000 Germans and that the enemy though using large numbers of aircraft of the latest type and other equipment has not been able to stop supplies getting through. VITAL SECTOR ON RUSSIAN SOUTHERN FRONT. GREAT QUESTIONS IN BALANCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 29. Nearly the whole of the latest news from Russian and German sources concerns the stretch between Briansk and Kharkov —an important 300-mile front which, according to the indications from Berlin, is destined to plqy a part scarcely secondary to that below Kharkov in a German drive for the Caucasian oil wells. The real question today is whether the Russians will await the German onslaught. The Soviet preparations between Kharkov and Briansk and thence to the Black Sea appear* to be nearer completion than the German preparations. A German trial attack on the central front before the launching of an offensive is reported by Stockholm correspondents to have ended disastrously for the Germans. The enemy’s aim was to end the Russian threat to the Smolensk-Viazma railway, the only route leading into the central area, where the Russians almost surround a huge salient. After heavy bombing, German infantry and armoured units attacked in force, but were repulsed after two days of fighting in which 1000 Germans were killed. Provincial