MOUNTING APACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1942, Page 4

MOUNTING APACE

NAZI LOSSES ON RUSSIAN FRONT SOVIET ESTIMATES FIGHTING ON APPROACHES TO CAUCASUS. SOME ENEMY CLAIMS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.rn.) LONDON. August 3. In Moscow it is estimated that the Germans are losing more than 15,000 men daily on the entire Russian front. It is reported in Moscow, without confirmation, that the Russians last week killed 60,000 Germans on the southern front and have also wiped out about 20,000 cn the Kushchovsk and Salsk fronts in the past five days. The total German casualties, since the opening of the present campaign, on the southern fronts, are 180,000 The Germans today claim a further advance north of the Caucasus and the capture of a big dam on the River Manich. The Vichy radio reported that the Germans are in the outskirts of Kavkasakaya and added that the main shock battle between the Russian and German armies can be expected within a few days. The Swiss radio stated that the Russians have by-passed Voronezh and are now menacing another important railway junction further to the west. Voronezh is now behind the main fighting zone. A German communique states: “Our panzer army is pursuing the Russians and approaching the upper course of the Kuban River.” The Berlin radio declared that German troops had reached the Kuban River and that Russian rearguards north-west of this area had been thrown back from the Yeya sector. Germans and Rumanians between the Sal and Don rivers, it was added, are driving the Russians eastward. An enemy communique reports continued attacks by strong Russian forces north of Rzhev and on the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, but says these failed. A Nazi High Command spokesman said the Russians made local break throughs in central and northern Russia. The Germans stemmed the attacks and in counter-attacks re-established the position.

A Moscow message says the fifth columnists and spies rounded up in the Don region, as reported yesterday, were Russian-speaking Germans dropped by parachute behind the Russian lines. Fifty-one were executed.