NOT CONFIRMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1943, Page 3

NOT CONFIRMED

GERMAN CLAIM TO HAVE TAKEN KHARKOV Ferocious Struggle in Progress SOVIET TROOPS PRESSING FORWARD ON CENTRAL FRONT CROSSING OF UPPER DNIEPER FORCED LONDON, March 15. The Russians are still advancing towards Smolensk. The position at Kharkov is very critical, though the German claim to have captured the city is not confirmed. There is little news from Moscow tonight about what is happening in the Kharkov sector. A front line message speaks of another Russian withdrawal. Berlin now claims that Kharkov has been in German hands since late yesterday afternoon and states that heavy fighting is going on both to the north and south of the city. One Moscow correspondent says the fighting has become as fierce as anything yet seen on this front. Hand to hand clashes are on the scale of the Stalingrad battle, where the bayonet played as important a part as the rifle itself. This correspondent echoes previous reports which emphasise the ferocity and striking power of the German attacks, which were made possible by the use of thousands of men who re 7 treated from round Stalingrad and from the Caucasus. The remnants of these armies were reinforced on the Dnieper with fresh divisions brought up from the west. The German attack on Kharkov and the strong counteroffensive towards the Donetz further south can be seen as part of the same determined campaign to hold up at any price the Russian drive developing so dangerously to the heart of the Ukraine. On the central front the double Soviet thrusts towards Smolensk show no signs of slackening and the Russians have taken more villages and German strongpoints in their southward and westward advance. • The place where the Russians forced a crossing of the Upper Dnieper is at a point 35 miles north-west of Viazma. This is a considerable achievement, as the right bank of the river is dominated by strongly fortified heights.