SMOLENSK BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 March 1943, Page 4

SMOLENSK BATTLE

GERMANS FIGHTING HARD CLINGING TO EVERY DEFENCE LINE. WITHOUT REGARD TO LOSSES. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, March 25. The battle in the Smolensk area is ragipg without pause by day or night. The Germans are clinging to every defence line and are coun-ter-attacking regardless of losses of men and material. The Russians describe the fortifications protecting Smolensk as among the most powerful to be found anywhere. They extend in depth through -several dozen miles of difficult terrain. FURTHER PROGRESS MADE BY THE RUSSIANS. (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, March 25. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says that besides the forces which have reached the outskirts of Dorogobuj, another Russian column has bypassed Yartsevo, northeast of Smolensk and occupied seven more inhabited localities around Dukhovshchino, which is a few miles northwest of Yartsevo. The correspondent quotes a front line dispatch saying that the Russians are methodically crumbling the enemy defences in the Smolensk area. Tanks in one sector routed a German column. Another unit repulsed seven counter-attacks within 36 hours and finally threw back the enemy, who began a retreat southwestward, leaving hundreds of dead before the Russian positions.