EARLY THAW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1943, Page 3

EARLY THAW

IN THE LENINGRAD AREA OPERATIONS RESTRICTED BY FLOODS. SOVIET PRESSURE MAINTAINED IN SOUTH. LONDON, March 31. No new developments are reported in Russia. The thaw has extended to the Leningrad area, where it is the earliest in living memory. On the Smolensk front continuous rain has caused flooding along the rivers, but groups of the Red Army have improved their positions in several places. On the Donetz front the Russians and Germans are sparring for positions, in preparation for’ the time when the ground becomes firm enough for big-scale operations. In the Kuban Country Soviet forces are keeping up their pressure against the German bridgehead. SIGNS OF STRAIN ON-GERMAN AIR FORCE IN RUSSIA. NOTED BY RED ARMY OBSERVERS (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, March 31. Red Army observers of the recent battle in the Donetz Easin noted these significant changes in Luftwaffe tactics which are a clear pointer to the cumulative exhaustion of the German air arm, says the “Daily Express” Moscow correspondent: — Firstly, mass bombing has disappeared. Secondly, the Luftwaffe’s most successful tactic, known as the airfield manoeuvre, has also disappeared. This consisted of packing an airfield normally mounting fifty bombers with 500 bombers in the few hours before an attack and then throwing in a mass of bombers and fighters over a narrow front. This irresistible manoeuvre, which was the sinew of German offensive strategy last summer and autumn, has disappeared because of the success of fast, mobile Russian mechanised columns in raiding and wrecking German forward bases in which 800 German bombers, since November, have been destroyed or captured on the ground. Thirdly, exhausting the Luftwaffe’s bomber force in forward areas has compelled the Germans to fall back on a motley selection of planes of all types. The Germans recently tried to copy Russian tactics of night bombing with light planes. Fourthly, the Red Army’s continued advance since November has forced the Germans to shift the weight of their planes to raiding Russian communications and assembly points deep in the rear. Fifthly, the Germans, in addition to transferring the latest Messerschmitt fighters, have recently also brought in Focke-Wulf 190 s from Western Europe.