HALTED & HELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 March 1943, Page 3

HALTED & HELD

NAZI EFFORTS TO CROSS MIDDLE DONETZ HITLER’S HOPES FADING. STEADY AND IMPLACABLE RUSSIAN DEFENCE. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON. March 27. The Germans have failed to cross the middle reaches of the Donetz River at any point, according to the latest dispatches from Moscow. The fighting has now reduced in scale, though the Germans are still making an effort to find weak spots in the Russian defences. The German radio commentator asserts that General von Manstein’s counter-strokes concluded when the Germans reached the upper Donetz on a wide front. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that Hitler’s hopes of leaving anything but dead Germans on the east side of the north Donetz are fading. Russian resistance is as steady and implacable as ever, and already 'the ground is softening under the thaw. The furious German assaults in the Chuguyev area are now comparatively weaker, but the struggle continues for the hills dominating sectors on the west bank of the Donetz elbow. General von Manstein is now occasionally sending small groups stealthily across the Donetz at dusk, but they are without exception mopped up. On the central front the Russians, despite the thaw, have gained ground toward Dorogubuj and Byeloi. They are fighting dozens of German “suicide” rearguard garrisons dotted over the countryside, while the few available roads are heavily mined. Violent fighting continues in the Chuguyev area, but neither official nor unofficial Russian reports concede the Germans any success in spite of repeated massed attacks.