BITTER BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1942, Page 3

BITTER BATTLE

FOUGHT IN VORONEZH AREA ONE OF THE GREATEST IN HISTORY. EFFECT OF THE RUSSIAN COUNTER-BLOWS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, July 15. The battle of Voronezh is described in a Moscow newspaper as one of the greatest in history. Thousands of tanks, tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of planes and field guns are engaged day and night. Striking from the west, the Germans are trying to encircle the city. They crossed the river both south and north of Voronezh. The Russians, however, rushed to these sectors, driving the enemy back to the river in the south and holding them in the north. The five miles between the Don and Voronezh rivers have become the scene of one of the bitterest battles the world has ever seen. The Germans are meeting the Soviet coun-ter-blows north-west of Voronezh by strengthening their anti-tank defences and converting tanks into pill-boxes. They are also stiffening their artillery and continuously attacking the Russians with dive-bombers. They have lost many tanks in this sector’ in trying to recapture lost ground. The Germans had to blow up an important bridge to which they had clung grimly for days. Much of their reinforcement had been brought over it. Nevertheless most of the other sectors are being subjected to hard pressure by the Nazis and a most dangerous situation is reported to be developing.