STILL FIRMLY HELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1943, Page 3

STILL FIRMLY HELD

GERMANS ON THE KURSK FRONT regrouping after many FAILURES. AND HEAVY LOSSES OF MEN & MATERIAL. 4 LONDON, July 14. On the Russian front the Germans appear to be now concentrating on the Byelgorod.area. All day yesterday the enemy tried desperately to widen ' the wedge in the Russian lines. Although they made more progress they failed once again to break through to open country. ■ At one stage when the position became critical at the point of the enemy wedge the Russians made heavy coun-ter-attacks on the base of the wedge. At the' Orel end of the front the German attacks have temporarily died down. The Nazi commander is regrouping his forces, after nine days of fighting which have brought nothing but heavy losses of men and material. Moscow expects the attacks to be resumed soon. The Red Army is steadily wearing down Field-Marshal von Kluge’s forces in the battle for the Kursk bulge, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Fighting went on all day on Monday on all sectors north and south.of the Kursk salient, but it was characterised by two outstanding facts: First, the Germans attacked with smaller forces and noticeably less vigour; and secondly, the Russian defences developed a tremendous come-back, ■ which was exemplified by Russian Guards at Byelgorod recapturing their original lines. Reuter’s correspondent adds: “The battle for Kursk is not yet decided, but unless von Kluge is able to produce a military white rabbit from Hitler's battered top hat, it looks as though Dr Goebbels had sound intuition when he pretended that the German offensive was not an offensive at all.”