NO SERIOUS BREAK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1943, Page 3

NO SERIOUS BREAK

IN BYELGOROD FRONT ACCORDING TO REUTER CORRESPONDENT. TANK LOSSES OF THE GERMANS STUPENDOUS. LONDON. July 9. Reports from Rusia speak of great battles of annihilation raging behind the Russian lines. A total of 204 German tanks was destroyed yesterday, including 60 of the Tiger type. There is no serious break on the Byelgorod front, says Reuter's Moscow correspondent. The German wedges in the Russian lines are insignificant and the Russian Air Force is not only holding its own against the Luftwaffe, but in many cases has local air mastery. Russian, tank losses so far are small and German tank losses are really stupendous (the latest official Russian figure is 1843 German tanks destroyed or disabled). RED ARMY TACTICS. The Russian tactics are to open up their infantry defences when the German panzer divisions attack in force, and to allow the tanks to penetrate. In the Russian rear the tanks are received by artillery, mainly mobile working like a giant mincing machine, while the Soviet infantry close in to their original positions to ward off German infantry advances. Hundreds of burnt-out tanks lie in these reception areas. Soviet dive-bombers are playing their part in these actions, as well as the fighters. Yesterday, 161 German aircraft were destroyed. At the same time, Soviet heavy bombers are subjecting troop trains, supply dumps, armoured columns, and river crossings in the German rear to continuous attack. The morale of the Russian armies at Kursk is very nigh and their fighting spirit is terrific. The Russians after the first three days of the summer battle feel that they have the measure of the Germans, even though the Kursk battle is by no means won.

A correspondent says that the Luftwaffe in groups of up to 200 attacked Russian ground forces all yesterday, but did not obtain superiority. The German High Command clearly intends to make a supreme effort to straighten the front line between Orel and Byelgorod. Field-Marshal von Kluge, who is directing the German .offensive, may strike south from Maloarkhandelsk torawd Rzhava, Kursk, on the Russian side, is only supplied by a secondary railway from Voronezh, .through Voronezh is directly linked with Moscow and also with the south. WHEAT FIELDS ABLAZE. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that fighting is going on over wheatfields which with the Ukraine are the granary of Russia. "Today,” he says, “many of them have become oceans of flame, over which the fury of the blitzgrieg has been again unleashed. This must seem a nightmare landscape from the German viewpoint. “Though the great battles are being fought out on a front of less than 200 miles, the assault which the Red Army is holding is as fierce as any it has ever had to' face. Russian artillery is mowing down German infantry and turning to scrap dozen after dozen of tanks, but the Germans still send in reinforcements. It seems that at least 3000 tanks and approximately 650,000 men are being used for the offensive.”

Russian fighters are not only being used against German planes, but are also making increasingly frequent attacks against ground targets, says the British United Press. They are attacking particularly tanks. Large numbers of dive-bombers are also being used for this work.