STIR OF PREPARATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 April 1943, Page 3

STIR OF PREPARATION

DURING LULL IN LAND FIGHTING ON THE EASTERN l-KONT. PERSISTENT RAIDING BY RED AIR FORCE. LONDON, April 25. In Russia both sides are using the lull in the fighting to consolidate their positions. The Soviet Command is rushing up vast quantities of artillery. The Red Air Force is pounding German airfields > and vital railway junctions.

German troops are trying to clear up bands of Russian guerillas, who are particularly active in the Smolensk sector. In one clash, 400 Germans were wiped out. The Russians are tightening up precautions against a possible German gas attack and have given prominence to the warning given by the Allies to Germany regarding a resort to chemical warfare on the Russian front.

GERMAN DEFEAT NORTH-WEST OF KURSK. WITH LOSS OF AT LEAST SIXTY TANKS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, April 25. A three-day battle in the Sychevsk sector, north-west of Kursk, ended in the repulse of the Germans with a loss of at least sixty tanks, according to a Moscow message. More than 100 tanks participated in each enemy attack, but the Soviet artillery held the positions with concentrated fire. The action resulted from a German attempt to nullify a slight improvement in the Soviet positions and was described as a local engagement. A supplementary communique states that Soviet pilots in the Baltic sank an enemy torpedo-boat. For the first time neither the communique nor supplement mentioned the Kuban front. Last night’s Soviet communique reported that the Germans had abstained from activity on this front because of heavy losses and this morning’s omission may be further proof of the Germans’ heavy losses and resultant inactivity.