GERMAN PEOPLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1943, Page 4

GERMAN PEOPLE

BEING PREPARED FOR POSSIBLE LOSS OF KUBAN BRIDGEHEAD. SIGNIFICANT STATEMENT IN BERLIN. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day-, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 3. The Russians’ refusal to break silence regarding their Kuban operations may mean that they are adopting the usual practice and not disclosing information when the success of any operation is in the balance. ■ The Germans, on the other hand, continue to detail new assaults. They say the latest was launched in the Krymskaya sector between the Kuban River and the Novorossisk Railway. The Berlin radio tonight declared that Russian attacks’on the eastern part of the Kuban bridgehead had spread to the southern and northern sectors. Referring to the admission that a Russian landing force is holding a beachhead near Novorossisk, the radio added that the Russians south of Novorossisk had received reinforcements by sea. The German people are being prepared for the possible loss of the Kuban bridgehead. A Berlin Foreign Office military spokesman said: “Strong Russian attacks continue and the further course of the Kuban fighting is unpredictable.” A Finnish communique reveals increased Russian activity in the Leningrad area. It states that Finnish fighters are encountering Russian air formations, upwards of 38 planes strong', over the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga.