OPENING MOVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1942, Page 3

OPENING MOVE

MADE BY SOVIET TANKS WAY SMASHED ACROSS DONETZ. GERMANS REPORT ATTACK NEAR TAGANROG. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, May 15. Reuter’s correspondent on the German frontier discloses that powerful Russian armoured forces -began the Kharkov offensive on May 13 and smashed their way across the Donetz on a 35-mile front between Volshansk and Chuguyev. Axis reports state that the Russians launched new attacks against German positions at Pokovsk, near Taganrog, but claim that the attack was repulsed after bitter fighting. BRIEF COMMUNIQUE STUBBORN FIGHTING IN CRIMEA. This Day, 9.55 a.m.) r , LONDON, May 15. A Moscow communique stated: “Stubborn fighting continued last night on the Kerch Peninsula. “The Russians in the Kharkov direction continued their offensive operations. “Nothing important has occurred in other sectors.” GERMAN GAS STATEMENT BY SWEDISH SCIENTISTS. STOCKHOLM, May 15. As a sequel to the German attempt to differentiate between poison gas and “nerve gas,” prominent Swedish scientists and a nerve specialist have pub-

lished a statement saying that any gas ■which has a paralysing effect must be regarded as a poison gas. A German military spokesman says that poison gas which the Russians have reported from the Crimea was probably emitted by mortal’ shells from a new “weapon.” The shells emit poison gas, though a chemical substance has not actually been employed.