STEADY PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1943, Page 3

STEADY PROGRESS

MADE BY SOVIET TROOPS IN KUBAN GERMAN BRIDGEHEAD DIMINISHING. FIERCE CONFLICT ON DONETZ. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 6. The Red Army is still on the offensive in the Kuban country. The German hold on the Caucasus bridgehead is steadily being weakened. Heavy rain has again hampered troop movements. Russian artillery pounded enemy positions and Soviet aircraft attacked enemy transport and shipping in the Kerch Straits. Further north, in the Middle Donetz region, the Germans are still throwing in tanks, aircraft and troops in an attempt to drive the Russians back over the river. The fiercest fighting is at Izyum, where the Soviet bridgehead is a potential threat to Kharkov. The situation here is described by Moscow as tense. Mr. Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chronicle’s” Moscow correspondent, says some Russians expect a new German offensive soon and all agree that very hard fighting lies ahead. SOVIET SNIPERS TAKING TOLL OF ENEMY. &LF WOMAN WITH SCORE OF 17 IN FEW DAYS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) RUGBY, April 6. A Russian communique describes further fighting south of Izyum and the repulse of German infantry, tank and air attack. South of Lake Ilmen the Russians dislodged the Germans from several fortified positions. On one sector here, snipers have wiped out 93 Germans in the past few days. A woman sniper, Nina Smetanina, accounted for 17.