SERIOUS IN PLACES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1942, Page 3

SERIOUS IN PLACES

POSITION OF THE RUSSIAN TROOPS ENEMY HURLING IN TANKS & INFANTRY. FIGHTING AT NEW PITCH OF INTENSITY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) RUGBY, July 5. Messages from Moscow describe in outline the development of the German offensive on various parts of the main southern front. The situation in the Byelforod sector, north-east of Kharkov, is described as serious, owing to the numerical supremacy of the enemy, which allows them to launch attack after attack. About here the Germans hurled in several infantry divisions and hundreds of tanks and used what are described as masses of the Luftwaffe. The Germans captured an unnamed large settlement. Fighting around Volchansk, south of Byelgorod, has reached a new pitch of intensity. The Germans hurled masses of tanks and infantry into a fresh attack, after a brief pause. All the attacks were preceded by Luftwaffe raids, in which dogfights were incessant. At one place in this sector the enemy drove a wedge into the Soviet defences. On the Kursk front, Russian counterattacks on the central sector stemmed the effort of the Germans, who had concentrated there five infantry divisions, four tank divisions and two motorised divisions. The German pressure, however, has not weakened and they are hurling into the battle an avalanche of tanks and infantry. In the northern sector of the Kursk front the Germans have been thrown back by Soviet counter-attacks. The Russians recaptured four settlements and destroyed a large number of tanks. Soviet armoured forces, says the “Pravda,” continue to hold their own in tank duels, which for ferocity are among the greatest in military history. There is a reference also to the main

northern front, where, around Kalinin, the Germans stormed two Soviet positions and advanced in one sector at a cost of 200 men. A Soviet counter-at-tack is now in progress. In a second sector the Russians forced the enemy to turn from attack to defence. Fighting is still continuing.