DRIVE HELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1942, Page 4

DRIVE HELD

LATEST MOSCOW STATEMENT SOME GERMAN BOASTING. USE OF MANY PLANES & NEW WEAPONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, May 12. Although the first reports of the German attack in the Kerch Peninsula indicated that their longawaited offensive had begun in earnest, the latest news from Moscow states that the offensive died down as quickly as it flared up and that the Russians are holding the drive. < A military spokesman in Berlin deg Glared that the German-Rumanian attack certainly was not the beginning of the promised great offensive. It was merely a limited action designed to prepare for the great event which was coming, but it was the first largescale attack and was of some importance within the limits mentioned, because an Axis victory would mean that the Russians would lose a springboard for carefully-prepared operations aimed at recapturing the Crimea. The enemy (the Russians) had created in this comparatively narrow space extraordinarily strong fortifications, with an excellent ground organisation for large air formations. He was employing land forces in this area which numerically were far superior. En- ' direly new weapons which the German and Rumanian forces were using in the Kerch Peninsula had completely surprised the Russians. Factories situated throughout Europe during the- winter had not only improved on the existing types of arms, but had worked on inventions. “When the large-scale offensive begins,” the Berlin spokesman stated,

“arms will be available which will have an effect similar to that obtained when we attacked the enemy’s defences in France.” “The Times” Stockholm correspondent says the Russians have strengthened their hold on the peninsula since the new year and also realise its importance. Therefore the hardest fighting yet seen in the Crimea can be expected in the near future. The German reference to the Russian strength is most significant. It is very unusual for such a tone to be adopted before the opening of an offensive. A German war correspondent claims that dive-bomber formations totalling 2,000 planes are operating in the peninsula and that .the Germans, soon after the attack opened, achieved complete mastery of the air. German planes operated without respite for fifteen hours and dropped over 2,000 bombs.