NAZI EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 May 1942, Page 3

NAZI EFFORT

COUNTER-ATTACK OPENED

SOUTH-EAST OF KHARKOV.

RUSSIAN ADVANCE NOT HALTED.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) ' LONDON, May 20. A Soviet communique stated: “Yesterday on the Kharkov front our troops waged offensive battles and forged ahead, repulsing enemy counter-attacks. On the IsyumBarvenkovo front battles took place with the enemy, who started an offensive. On the Kerch Peninsula fierce fighting continues in the region of the town of Kerch.” Isyum is on the Donetz River 80 miles south-east of Kharkov, and Barvenkovo is 30 miles south-west of lysum. General von Bock’s offensive is seen as a threat to the flank and rear of Marshal Timoshenko’s armies. Isyum is at the base of the Russian bulge south of Kharkov, and the Germans are probably aiming to cut in behind the Russian left wing; alternatively, the new German move may be an attempt to relieve the tremendous Russian pressure on Kharkov, on which all of von Bock’s advanced communications pivot. Some Russian units are reported to be only eight miles from the centre of Kharkov. The Russians are advancing where the German resistance is weakened and holding their own with the greatest tenacity at those points where the enemy is desperately trying to counterattack. Reuter’s special correspondent in Moscow says that if the Germans’ heavy counter-attacks have slowed

down the Russian advance they have failed to halt it.

The latest communique, reporting the situation during last night, repeats that the Soviet forces were engaged in offensive operations in the Kharkov direction, and says that in the south strong Russian resistance continued in the area of the town of Kerch. The German High Command yesterday had claimed the complete capture of the Kerch Peninsula.