FURTHER PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 April 1943, Page 3

FURTHER PROGRESS

MADE BY RED ARMY IN KUBAN COUNTRY DRIVE TOWARDS KERCH STRAIT. IN FACE OF STUBBORN RESISTANCE. LONDON, April 2. Russian troops are developing their recent successes in the Kuban country, where they captured three more villages during the night. Red Army troops are less than 40 miles from the waters of the Kerch Strait and the eating into the German bridgehead at the rate of about five miles a day. Mr Paul Winterton, the London “NewsChronicle’s” Moscow representative, says the Germans are taking full advantage of the bad road conditions and are resisting stubbornly in strongly defended positions. They are getting a lot of support from aircraft and artillery. On the rest of the Russian front the lull continues. No important change has occurred on the Donetz and Smolensk fronts. There is no confirmation of a German report of a big Russian attack on the Leningrad front south of Lake Ladoga. FEVERISH WORK ON ROADS & RAILWAYS. CAPTURE OF IMPORTANT JUNCTION. LONDON, April 1. The Berlin radio declared that the Russians have launched new attacks on a broad front in the northern part of the Kuban bridgehead, with tanks, battle planes, and heavy artillery. . Reuter reports that the Russians near the Kuban front are working feverishly to restore road and rail communications, which the retreating Germans have destroyed. Trains are already running over the 100-mile stretch between Voroshilovsk and Kavk3They clogging ground and supply difficulties are not preventing the Russians in the Kuban from nibbling at the German defence line. The Russian capture of Anatasevvkaya, which has been announced, is of great strategic value because it is the junction of a number of important roads and makes the German position on the north bank of the Kuban River much more difficult. Also, the Russians have taken more _ settlements and have severed the communications between several large German strongholds.