GROWING IN SCOPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 March 1943, Page 3

GROWING IN SCOPE

CONFLICT IN CHUGUVEV AREA RED ARMY RESISTANCE STIFFENING. SOVIET CAPTURES IN KUBAN REGION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) RUGBY, March 22. The battle in the Chuguyev area is growing in scope as the Red Army resistance stiffens and with the Russians ' capturing the initiative in some places, forcing the enemy to withdraw, says a Moscow message. Especially fierce fighting is in progress for an unnamed place which has changed hands a number of times. The fighting in the Kuban area is accompanied by incessant dogfights in the air, with the Russians apparently more than holding their own. Russian planes unceasingly attack the German lines of communication and help their own ground troops. The latest Soviet successes in this area, in which a number of strongpoints have been wrested from the enemy, are due to this fine air support and also to the skilful' nature of pincer movements and the suddenness of assault. The latest supplementary Russian communique speaks of the repulse of a number of German attacks in an area south-east of Kharkov, where the enemy tried several times to press back the Russians and occupy a water barrier, but all these efforts were repelled. The supplement also states that the Russians on the central front continued their offensive and occupied a number of localities, despite coun-ter-attacks.