VAST MOVEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1943, Page 4

VAST MOVEMENT

OF MEN AND MATERIAL ON THE EASTERN FRONT. • PREPARATION FOR NEXT STAGE.. OF CONFLICT. ■ (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, April 6. A vast movement of men and material is proceeding along the 1200 miles front as the Russian and - German forces prepare for the / next stage of the conflict. Meantime hard fighting is reported only ■ from the Donetz and Kuban sectors. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Germans are seriously worried about the Russian bridgehead on the west bank of the Donetz, south of

Isyum, the continued existence of "which renders the German position in Kharkov insecure. Consequently, bitter fighting is going on there daily, the Germans bringing up more planes, Tanks and men. A small number _of • '.’Germans penetrated the Soviet line ' yesterday, but they were wiped out in hand to hand fighting. The Germans ,;are unlikely to have forgotten that '5, the Russians' grim retention of bridgebeads at Voronezh last year provided the Red Army with jumping-off places for their great offensive. The Berlin radio mentioned fighting in the Middle Donetz area, north of Balakleya, which is 30 miles north-west of Isyum. The radio said the Germans stormed a strategically important locality and reached the Donetz on a ' ' five-mile front. Reports from the Kuban indicate that after several days of better weath-

'er, heavy rain is now hampering the movements of / General Maslennikov’s forces. He is (using the interval to pound the German defence lines with artillery. Meanwhile Russian Stormoviks are bombing roads and shipping ■ in the Kerch Straits. “The Times” Stockholm correspond- ■ ent says General Maslennikov is using large forces—the Germans say several divisions—against the Krymskaya sector. This apparently is what the Russians mean in stating that their artillery is shelling a big centre of resistance. The Berlin radio’s announcement yesterday that the Germans at Staraya Russa had “carried out a successful withdrawal to new positions,” is inter preted by Moscow correspondents to mean that Marshal Timoshenko has thrown the Germans out of the town, but Moscow has not- officially claimed j‘|s capture. Correspondents say the capture of this strongly-fortified base inay open the way for a Russian drive through the Baltic States, north-east <4o the. Baltic Sea. The German armies "still in the Leningrad area may be forced to withdraw to the west to being cut off.