KURSK MENACED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 March 1943, Page 4

KURSK MENACED

BY ENEMY THRUSTS IN DONETZ AREA BUT RUSSIANS RESISTING STOUTLY. SOME SLACKENING IN NAZI EFFORTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 22. Although Russian conquests south of Kursk are imperilled by the German thrusts in the Middle Donetz, where the situation in some sectors is regarded as critical, dispatches from Moscow indicate a slackening of the German thrusts, which correspondents attribute to the stiffening of Russian resistance and to Von Manstein feeling the strain of losses. The fact that the Germans are nowusing small tank groups for infiltration, instead of massive columns, may also be due to attrition. On the contrary, Berlin radio commentators tonight emphasise the quietude of the southern wing, which the German News Agency ascribes to the need for regrouping after the forced marches of tank and motorised formations across bad roads, due to the thaw. The news agency added that the German operations have now been in progress for five weeks and that local halts are essential during such a large-scale offensive. SIGNIFICANT FEATURE. The most significant present feature is the lull between Taganrog and Bielgorod and also in the territory the Germans have won south-west and north-west of Kursk. General Dietmar, broadcasting from Berlin what heu claimed to be a “winter battle epilogue,” asserted that the battle is still raging in some areas, in the last act of a... successful counter-offensive which reached its climax in the reconquest of Kharkov, sealing off the most dangerous breach in the German lines. 'Fighting was ending, he said, because the thaw and mud would enforce a lull. The Berlin radio said the centre of gravity had shifted to .-south-westward of Viazma, south of Lake Ladoga and south-east of Leningrad. In these regions the'Russians are still pushing on, even if they are slowed up by a terrain consisting of swampy and wooded plains, intersected by rivers, unfavourable for the deployment of big forces. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says the position of the Russians in the Ukraine has deteriorated considerably with the loss of Bielgorod. Kursk is now seriously endangered. Waves of German tanks and armoured units are attacking incessantly at single points in the Middle Donetz, which the Germans crossed at Several places in the Isyum area. The Russians are on the defensive at Briansk and in the Donetz Basin, where their communications are becoming worse, while those of 'the Germans are improving. CHUGUYEV BATTLE. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Geman offensive on the Donetz front is still gathering strength. The heaviest pressure is still against the fhuguyev bridgehead and in the Bielgorod arda. The German command is doing everything it can to break through the Russian defences at Chuguyev, a move which, if successful, would threaten the right flank and even the rear of the Russian forces from Voroshilovgrad to Rostov. An Associated Press correspondent, however, reports that the Russians at Chuguyev strongly resisted several large-scale German attempts to cross the Donetz. The “Pravda” reported that several settlements in this area are continuously changing hands as the R£d Army stiffens 'its resistance. A British United Press correspondent . says a German attack in the Shisdra area, north-east of Briansk, was aimed at checking Russian columns advancing towards Briansk from the north, but the Russians continue driving towards Smolensk from the- north and east. Their spearheads at present are 50 miles apart Marshal Timoshenko is still pressing attacks aiming at Staraya Russa, while far to the south, in the Caucasus, General Maslennikov’s army, despite mud, has resumed its attempt to drive the Germans across the Kerch Straits to the Crimea. The Germans have thrown in many planes. The Russians are steadily bombing communications between the Kuban pocket and the Crimea. NORTHERN OPERATIONS. 1 Paying attention to German references to important fighting in the vivinity of Leningrad, Schlusselburg and the Finnish Gulf, “The Times” Stockholm correspondent recalls the German failure last year to take Oranienbaum (25 miles west of Leningrad, on the southern shore of the Finnish Gulf), which' is beleaguered by land but has sea communications open to Leningrad. The Germans expect the Russians to make a strong effort to press from Leningrad along the coast, aiming at freeing the passage of the Baltic Fleet from Kronstadt and also at co-operating with the Lake Ilmen operations. If both drives are pressed home northward of Lake Peipus it would entrap the Germans north of Lake Ilmen. Experts in Berlin are uncertain whether Russian activity at Leningrad is part of this operation or is preliminary probing to improve the position for a real summer offensive. Marshal Timoshenko’s drive southward of Lake Ilmen, despite its weight is regarded as a preliminary, rather than a major operation. -One of the most important features is that the Russians are preparing for large-scale summer offensives, which the Germans hitherto have regarded as their own monopoly. German anxiety is betrayed by the elaborate defences they are building far behind the lines in the Baltic States and White Russia, indicating that the Germans envision a possible retreat. A Finnish communique reports that the Russian Air Force last night twice attacked Helsinki. The damage was slight.