MOUNTING LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1943, Page 3

MOUNTING LOSSES

INFLICTED ON GERMANS IMPORTANCE OF HOLDING DONETZ. SOVIET PROGRESS IN CENTRE & NORTH. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 14. Though heavily outnumbered in men, tanks and planes, the Russian defenders of Kharkov are still resisting desperately. A front-line dispatch to the Moscow “Pravda” says that the situation is serious. The “Red Star” says that the Russian resistance at Kharkov is growing, and is slowing down the enemy advance and inflicting mounting losses. The military correspondent of the “Sunday Express,” Morley Richards, believes there is hope for Kharkov as long as the defenders can hold the left bank of the Donetz River. If the Russians are driven from the Donetz the eastern communications of the city will be threatened and it may be necessary to withdraw from the position. The Russians are driving a bold wedge between Viazma and Smolensk, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Their right flank made a considerable advance toward Yartsevo, which is 40 miles north-east of Smolensk, and on the left flank the Red Army is biting more deeply between the headwaters of the Dnieper River and Viazma, thrusting toward Nikitinka. Marshal Timoshenko’s troops, fighting among the bogs on the south bank of Lake Ilmen, have broken into German strongholds, guarding Staraya Russa, from the north. Five villages were taken in a series of swift encircling moves.