NORTHERN BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 July 1942, Page 3

NORTHERN BATTLES

NAZI FORCE WIPED OUT NEAR RZHEV RECENT ENEMY CLAIMS REFUTED. LITTLE TO SET AGAINST HEAVY LOSSES. (British Official Wireless. l RUGBY, July 16. It is announced in the supplement to today’s Moscow communique that “1200 Germans been killed in a single day on the central front. Three companies of Germans penetrated the Soviet line east of Rzhev, but were cut off by an artillery and mortar barrage from their main body. The Russians then charged with tommyguns and annihilated the entire force.” A correspondent of the “Red Star” has visited the Rzhev sector after the German claims to have encircled several Soviet divisions and taken scores of thousands of prisoners. The correspondent says: “The German claims have been wildly exaggerated. Between July 2 and 13 they advanced a few miles,' but made no strategic gain. They lost 200 tanks and cut off 5000 Russians soldiers, many of whom are now in action as guerillas.” The Tass news agency stated that successive German attacks in the past 24 hours against an inhabited locality on the Kalinin front had been rolled back with enormous losses. Russian counter-blows completely halted the Germans on the Bryansk front, where the Germans are hastily reinforcing their troops, and are believed to beqireparing for large-scale fiction.