PRESSING FORWARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1942, Page 4

PRESSING FORWARD

RUSSIANS ON KHARKOV FRONT IMPORTANT ENEMY POST CAPTURED. WITH IMMENSE BOOTY. LONDON, May 24. The Red Army is pressing forward towards Kharkov. Another important inhabited place has been wrested from German hands. The Germans made every effort to ‘ drop food and supplies by air for encircled forces, but all their attempts failed. The Germans could not break through the defence and even 600 airborne-troops were killed and an immense booty was captured, The.rest of the German garrison fled.,

VARIOUS REPORTS

BATTLE STILL RAGING. THE WITHDRAWAL FROM KERCH. (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, May 24. The Russians in some sectors of the Kharkov front continue to press back the Germans, but on other sectors only fighting necessary for consolidation is going on.

Russian reports , from the IsyumBarnekovo region indicate that the Germans are. being held, despite heavy fighting and Axis claims that the situation. there continues to be favourable to the Axis.

The Paris radio claims that the Russians have been driven back to the Donetz River north-eastwards of Kharkov, but the battle around Kharkov itself is still raging, with thousands of tanks and planes and at least a million men participating. Fierce local actions continue in the Lake Ilmen area, where the Germans have strongly fortified their positions. The “Red Star” says the abandonment of Kerch was largely due to the Luftwaffe suddenly massing hundreds of planes from other sectors on twelve to fourteen miles of front, concentrating terrific hammer blows from the air. The Russian' Air Force nevertheless managed to hit back hard. In one instance a group of fighters raided German aerodromes in the Crimea where d hundred grounded planes were burned and 50 damaged. . The Press Association’s aeronautical correspondent says German divebombers and fighters from Sicily participated in the Kerch offensive “presumably the squadrons Kesselring had previously flung against Malta.” The British United Press Moscow correspondent report that Kerch, one of tlje oldest cities in Russia, is now in ruins. Casualties in fighting on the peninsula are believed to have been very heavy on both sides, but the Russians succeeded in saving much of their men and equipment, which were withdrawn under a rearguard action.