GALLANT CITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1942, Page 3

GALLANT CITY

WOMEN TAKING FULL PART IN DEFENCE GERMANS MASSED IN DONETZ BASIN. PREPARATIONS FOR ATTEMPTED THRUST. LONDON, June 19. The attack against hard-pressed Sebastopol is clearly entering a critical stage. The Germans, according to Berlin radio, are fighting in the heart of Sebastopol’s fortifications and have captured more important heights. Russian speedboats are rushing in reinforcements of marines to Sebastopol, but the German radio claimed that a Russian landing at Yalta, 40 miles to the east, was baulked, though some marines landed north of Kerch. The German claims are not confirmed. Today’s Soviet communique says that the attacks during last night were beaten off with heavy loss. Mr Paul Winterton. the 8.8.C.’s Moscow correspondent, says the enemy have macle no appreciable progress. The correspondent adds that many girls of Sebastopol have entered the army, and hundreds of housewives are working day and night in the hospitals. There are no signs that a reduction of Sebastopol’s defences will be rapid, says the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times.” The Russians are attacking fiercely, and they claim to have inflicted such losses on the Luftwaffe that its attacks are reduced to oneseventh of the former strength, but all this cannot alter the general situation. A diversion to another sector is the only means of making the Germans loosen their grip on Sebastopol, and there is no indication of any such diversion. The sector between the Donetz Basin and the sea is crammed with material which could be brought into action any day for the inevitable effort to burst through to the North Caucasian Plain, and the ground conditions in this area are better than they are nearer Kharkov. In the neighbourhood of the Sea of Azov the ground is now the firmest of any on the front. Reports from Istanbul reveal that preparations by the Axis for an offensive across the Black Sea are well advanced. Bulgaria will apparently be the jumping-off point. A considerable merchant fleet is massed at Burgas and Varna, and Italian contingents have arrived at Varna ready to embark.