EAST FRONT BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 March 1943, Page 3

EAST FRONT BATTLES

RUSSIANS CLOSING IN RELENTLESSLY ON VIAZMA Hand to Hand Night Fighting in Snow t! FURIOUS STRUGGLE WEST AND SOUTH OF KHARKOV FATE OF CITY STILL HANGS IN BALANCE LONDON, March 11. Advanced Russian troops today are reported to be only 10 miles from Viazma, the eastern buttress of Hitler’s Smolensk bastion. They are pressing in on the Germans and giving them no time to consolidate. At night ski troops creep up close to the German positions, charge down on them and engage the defenders in hand-to-hand battles. South-east of Viazma, Russian spearheads have pierced the German defences at several points along a river bank. To the north and north-east the Russians are closing in on two railways that meet at Viazma and are drawing closer to Viazma’s lifeline, the road and railway linking the city with Smolensk. The other main centre of interest on the Russian front is the area before Kharkov. A Moscow communique states that last night, Soviet troops were fighting against numerically superior enemy forces south and west of the city. Unofficial messages from Moscow state that the fate of Kharkov still hangs in the balance. By concentrating their forces on a narrow front, the Germans have gained a superiority in numbers and weight of armour and are repeating their costly Stalingrad tactics. The Germans are throwing in forces regardless of losses, but so far they have failed to cross the Donetz River and get to the rear of Kharkov. They are now concentrating on the western and southern approaches.