TRICKS & RUSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1943, Page 4

TRICKS & RUSES

PRACTISED BY OPPOSED FORCES ON OTHERWISE QUIET DONETZ FRONT. INFORMATION SOUGHT BY BOTH SIDES. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, June 27. The stabilisation of the RussianGerman front on long stretches of the northern Donetz River has created a situation of border warfare, with incidents reminiscent of old tales of frontier fighting between Cossacks and Tartar tribesmen on the Terek, or by Croat defenders of the Danubian marshes against the Turks. The Russians and Germans, each using ingenious ruses, pass scouts through the others’ lines.

The “Pravda” reports that donning skirts and covering their heads and shoulders with shawls, are prooeeding down to the river with buckets. The Russians, where the Donetz is sufficiently narrow, have been throwing grenades against these sham peasants. The Russians are busy scouting on the right bank for information for their artillery. Recent films have shown some of the tricks used—for instance Tadjik soldiers drifting downstream, under inflated sheepskins, with all but their eyes submerged. There are occasional brief mortar and machine-gun exchanges and light artillery duels. There are sometimes more serious engagements, when the enemy tries to force the river with one or two battalions, supported by tanks, but the front recently has been very quiet. Today’s Finnish communique ' states that, after heavy artillery preparation on June 26, the Russians attacked a strongpoint near Rukajervi, which the Finns, after strong resistance, abandoned. Finnish troops, on the morning of June 27, counter-attacked and recaptured this strongpoint. Russian attacks on the - Karelian Isthmus were beaten off.