RIVAL ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1943, Page 4

RIVAL ATTACKS

ON THE EASTERN FRONT FURIOUS GERMAN EFFORT AGAINST KHARKOV. RUSSIANS MAKING HEADWAY TOWARDS SMOLENSK. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, March 14. The terrific battle for Kharkov, although it is critical, has not yet reached its climax. The defenders, hard pressed on all sides, are battling valiantly against ferocious attacks which hourly are gaining force. Simultaneously the Red Army which captured Viazma has swept on to the fringes of the forest belt 5 miles east of Smolensk, which is now threatened with envelopment. The antagonists thus continue to maintain the utmost pressure in advances which menace valuable strategic points in the opponents’ line. There has been hitherto no indication that either colossal attack has affected the power with which the Russians or the Germans are carrying on their respective offen- , The Russians admit the peril in which the Germans have placed Kharkov, asserting that the enemy is conually throwing in fresh troops from the west. Russian newspapers, re-echoing the adjurations of the heroic epoch at Stalingrad, declare: “We can and must hurl back the German onslaught on Kharkov and the Donetz Basin, no matter what the cost." Judging from the Red Army's experience at Voronezh and Stalingrad, says Reuter's Moscow correspondent, the Germans are capable of keeping up for a fortnight the pressure they are putting on Kharkov, but only five days have elapsed since the start of the real onslaught against Kharkov, where the Russians are again facing a typical, big-scale German panzer movement. DEFENCE OF THE DONETZ. Much depends on the ability of the defenders to concentrate sufficient gunpower at points at which the Germans switch and reconcentrate their armoured forces. Much of the terrain over which fighting is going on is roadless and the thaw necessitates tanks using better roads, which to some extent is assisting the Russian gunners. Despite being forced to yield ground northward and westward of Kharkov —where the position is still not clear —the Russians have apparently stemmed strong German thrusts, but masses of German tanks are still battering the Russian flanks. In addition, sixty miles to the southward, the Red Army is desperately resisting German attempts to force the passage of the Donetz in the Izyum area, where an enemy success would turn the Kharkov defences. The Russians everywhere are fighting with a heroism worthy of the Red Army's traditions concludes Reuter. The “Red Star” says a new danger to Kharkov is developing from the north, where a big German force h'as been attacking for several days. The Germans have occupied several villages, but the Russians thus far- have held off the enemy sufficiently to prevent an outflanking move. The enemy pressure is increasing and in the past 24 hours the Russians have been obliged to withdraw at several points. Today’s German communique states: “The greater part of Kharkov is in German hands. Bitter fighting continues only in the south-eastern area of the city.” GUERILLAS WAITING. Driving on in the central sectoi- on a 50-mile front from Viazma, the Russians have reached the grim Smolensk forests, which according to a British United Press correspondent, are filled with, tough guerillas, who have been waiting for nearly two years for such an opportunity of harassing the Germans, while they are fighting rearguard actions. The forests run southward from Yelnia and northward across the Viazma-Smolensk Railway. The Germans, fearing forest fighting, built exterior defences which Russian mobile units and ski tboops turned, forcing the Germans to make a major retreat by road. This partly accounts for the more rapid advance since the occupation of Viazma. The victors of Viazma, driving down towards Briansk after a record advance of 56 miles in 48 hours, have reached Miliatinsky and Zavod, 95 miles from Briansk. The Russians advancing from Sevsk also threaten Briansk in a pincer from the south, where they are within 70 miles of the city. The Russians in addition are menacing Smolensk from the north, where two columns are operating on the Upper Dnieper and against Nikitinka, with a possibility of cutting off the Germans retreating from Viazma to Smolensk, oi’ pushing on for the envelopment of this valuable German base.