GIGANTIC TASK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1943, Page 3

GIGANTIC TASK

CLEARING OF DONETZ BASIN VIOLENT FIGHTING. NAZI STRENGTH BEING SAPPED. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, February 19. The German position in the Donetz Basin has become more critical as the Russians extend their thrusts southwest of Kramatorskaya and Voroshilovgrad. A combination of thrusts from Rostov is threatening the last rail connection linking the Donetz Basin with the Crimea. The British United Press correspondent at Moscow says the conquest of the Donetz Basin is perhaps the most difficult task which the Russians are facing in their winter campaign. The 1 whole area is an unbroken stretch of towns and villages, running into one another. The Germans have dug in at every possible defence point, pillboxes dominating the roadways. Violent street fighting marks the Russian mop-ping-up of every settlement. The Russians have encircled many Donetz Basin garrisons, which, however, are still holding out and are being supplied by air. The Germans accordingly are clinging desperately to every airfield, which have been, hastily fortified with anti-tank guns and heavily garrisoned. The Germans, in addition, possess scores of tanks and can call up numerous aircraft. The Russians are powerfully striking in various directions, pinning down, the enemy and then sending in swift mobile units for the encirclement of the Germans, whose strength is continually being sapped. The gigantic task of clearing the Donetz Basin is going on steadily. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Germans killed in the Donetz Basin since the fall of Rostov are estimated at over 10,000 and the total casualties at 25,000.