GRIM STRUGGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1943, Page 4

GRIM STRUGGLE

BEING WAGED IN KUBAN VALLEY GERMANS STILL RUSHING REINFORCEMENTS. RUSSIANS PRESSING HARD. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, April 19. Despite 6,000 casualties in abortive counter-attacks in the waterlogged Kuban Valley, the Germans are still rushing reinforcements across the Kerch Straits from their Crimean garrisons, in an effort to prevent the Red Army edging them from the last corner of the Caucusus. General Maslennikov’s army, after grinding down counter-thrusts, is today pressing hard against the enemy’s forward positions. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that although the enemy has not gained ground, the fighting has not yet slackened. The fact that the Germans threw a complete tank regiment, supported by bombers, into their most recent counter-attack, indicates their earnestness to make headway. Nevertheless they were forced back to their original positions after a 24 hours battle. “The Times” Stockholm correspondent asserts that both sides in the Kuban have virtually inexhaustible reserves of men and material available —the Axis from the Crimea and the Russians from the Caucasus and Rostov areas, with easy transport on three railways. Therefore it is reasonable to expect that the battle will be lengthy, unless the Germans decide that their bridgehead is not worth the high price the Russians are exacting. The bulk of the Axis air activity at present is directed against the Russian positions south of Novorossisk and adjacent bases on the Black Sea shore, for the purpose of easing the strain against the German garrison of Novorossisk, which has been battling since March to prevent its construction between the mountains and the Black Sea by General Maslennikov's indefatiguablo force, which keeps landing reinforcements.