SEVERE CONTEST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1943, Page 4

SEVERE CONTEST

FOR INITIATIVE IN SPRING CAMPAIGN BEING WAGED IN RUSSIA. GERMANS STILL TRYING TO CROSS DONETZ. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, April I.' Fighting on the Donetz front flaies up and dies down spasmodically, with the Red Army clinging to severely disputed bridgeheads. A British United Press correspondent says that as a result of the loss of thousands of men and hundreds of tanks in fruitless attacks during the past fortnight, German units shattered in the Donetz fighting are being sent to the rear for rest and regrouping, which is contributing to a decline in the intensity of the fighting. The Germans are resorting to new tricks in an obstinate effort to secure a foothold on the east bank of the Donetz Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says small gangs of German engineers assemble at isolated points and try to i build pontoons across the Donetz. RusSinn patrols and air reconnaissance 'have thus far thwarted the small beginnings of attempts to get big forces across the river. Reuter also reports that the Russians are firmly keeping their bridgeheads on the east bank of the river. In the Byelgorod and Chuguyev areas they are daily fortifying and even improving positions which the Germans have been attacking for over a fortnight. The present positional warfare and regrouping cf forces behind the lines, and dispositions of fresh reserves, althcught not dramatic in appearance, are actually of the highest importance in the game of military chess that is being played to determine which side will get the initiative in the spring campaign.