TENSE AS EVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1942, Page 4

TENSE AS EVER

SEBASTOPOL SITUATION NAZIS CLAIM CAPTURE OF FORTS. NEW FORCES BEING BROUGHT IN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, June 21. The situation remains tense at Sebastopol,” says the “Red Star.” “The Germans constantly bring in new forces, particularly in the northern and southern sectors. Under pressure of superior forces, the Russians in one sector have retreated to intermediate positions. Fighting is extremely violent in the north sector where the Germans have concentrated large tank and artillery forces and are launching five or six attacks daily. The Germans lost 1,500 men in one and a half days’ fighting in this sector. ; The Moscow radio declared that a. German infantry regiment was routed and. thirteen tanks destroyed on the northern sector yesterday. A German company was also wiped out in the southern sector. The Germans continue to suffer heavy losses in other sectors around Sebastopol. The latest report from Kharkov says the Russians have beaten off a largescale German flank attack, after which the Red Army captured a village which the Germans were using as a stronghold. The Germans are still trying to break through; on? the main sectors of this front, but the German drive appears to have lost much of its strength owing to severe losses. One hundred German tanks were destroyed in one day’s fighting on the Kharkov front. A German communique claims that alLthe forts on the northern front before Sebastopol are now in German hands.