BITTER DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1943, Page 3

BITTER DEFENCE

OF PARTS OF KHARKOV ADMITTED BY GERMANS. NON-STOP FIGHTING REPORTED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, March 15. The Russians today make no admission of the loss of Kharkov and the German High Command, which yesterday claimed the city’s recapture, speaks, according to the Berlin radio, of the occupation of the most important part of the city. The claims to have entered the Red Square and a railway station, presumably the southern station, and the centre of the city is repeated, though a bitter Soviet defence in the factory districts and the suburban area is admitted. The Russians, in a supplement to the morning communique, do admit a retreat to a new position in one sector, after stubborn fighting. One Moscow message says the Red Army is slowly falling back in the Kharkov area, inflicting heavy losses on the Germans, who are maintaining a numerical superiority. It adds that the desire of the enemy to recapture Kharkov is so great that they are fighting non-stop, day and night. Discussing the possible effects of the capture of Kharkov, if such is the case, British military observers point out that further north, Orel, from the German standpoint, is in an awkward salient. If the Germans advance on the Kharkov front between the Kharkov and Orel sectors and swing back east, the Russians may be faced with an awkward salient and may have to withdraw. The Russian advance west and south-west of Viazma, along the upper reaches of the Dnieper, continues and several dozen localities have been reoccupied, including the district and railway station of Senlevo, 13 miles from Viazma. South of Byeloi several localities have been occupied and stubborn fighting continues in the Izyum area, where the enemy, regardless of huge losses, 1 ' continues to attack.