KHARKOV BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1942, Page 4

KHARKOV BATTLE

ONE OF THE GREATEST OF THE WAR GERMANS NO LONGER UNDER DELUSION. ENCIRCLEMENT CLAIM MODIFIED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received 1 This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, May 26. The bitterness and intensity of the struggle on the Kharkov front surpasses any previous battles on the Eastern front, says a Moscow dispatch. The Germans, who at first described Marshal Timoshenko's attack as a diversion against the German onslaught in the Crimea, have now no delusions. This is one of the greatest battles ' of the war, but to say it may be over in seven days is suggesting, of course, that it will result in their favour. Reports from both sides, unfortunately, still do not name places, except very vaguely. Both sides refer to fierce fighting on the Kharkov _ front, separate from the fighting ,j in the Isyum-Barvenkov'a sector. Both sides also refer to fighting southward of Kharkov for a river which the Russians admit is in the Isyum-Barven-kova sector and which the Germans specifically name as the Donetz. . The Germans tonight still insist that three Sbviet armies are encircled in the Isyum-Barvenkova sector, but admit that the pressure which is being exerted by these herded armies is extremely strong and that the Soviet resistance is still organised.