GREAT BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1942, Page 3

GREAT BATTLE

EXPECTED IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE ALLIES STRENGTHENING CAUCASUS FRONT. PLANES & GUNS ARRIVING VIA PERSIA. LONDON, June 29. After the Russians’ withdrawal from Kupyansk, which was the most mobile sector on the southern Russian front last week, Field-Marshal von Bock has paused along the Oskol River, where he is re-grouping his forces. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that Marshal Timoshenko’s army is still intact and represents a flank danger to any German drive eastward. Von Bock must either destroy Timoshenko’s army or leave a sufficient force to check it before proceeding toward the Caucasus. A very hard large-scale battle in the south Ukraine is predicted for early July, when von Bock’s hammer-head is expected to swing directly eastward for participation in the main German drive against the Caucasus. The Stockholm newspaper “Nya Dagligt Allehanda” reports that the Allies are feverishly strengthening the Caucasus front, where hundreds of planes and thousands of guns are arriving in a steady stream by way of Persia. American engineers as Basra assemble and test the planes and lorries before delivery. Russians and Americans are also building new docks at the port of Basra.