NEW OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1943, Page 3

NEW OFFENSIVE

LAUNCHED BV GERMANS IN SOUTH RUSSIA TANK & INFANTRY ATTACKS THROWN BACK. SOVIET TROOPS CLOSING IN ON OREL. LONDON, July 30. A Russian communique reports that the Germans have launched large-scale tank and infantry attacks in the Donbas region, south-west of Voroshilovgrad. The Russians report that the enemy attacks were thrown back. In their Orel offensive, the Russians have gained from 2>/_> to 5 miles today and captured another 20 places. On the Leningrad front, where there has been renewed activity in the past three days, the Russians report intensive patrol action, CRISIS REACHED IN THE BATTLE FOR OREL. ( BOTH SIDES USING GREAT FORCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Daj', 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, July 30. The battle for Orel has reached a crisis, with both sides throwing in more men, armour, guns and planes in a desperate effort to tip the scales. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says a solution must come soon. The Gerftians, in order to delay the crisis, are defending the approaches to a number of small, key towns guarding Orel from three sides. The Germans know that if these fall, the Red Army will have Orel by the throat. Both sides are throwing in larger numbers of guns and tanks than have been employed since the Russians' first made their break-through. A number of head-on tank clashes developed yesterday. A fierce battle is going -on at a strongly fortified town which the Germans call the key to Orel. The town is 21 miles south-west of Orel. The Russians weie last reported to be only five miles away. The Russians driving down from Bolkhov still have to deal with powerful German strongholds at Kutma, 12 miles south of Bolkhov and Masvovo, 15 miles north-west of Orel. The importance the Germans attach to holding on is shown by an order found on prisoners, in which the German Colonel-Gen-eral Model states: "You must hold out to the last man, if necessary, to prevent complete defeat." The Russians are operating on a zigzag 200 mile front, the Reuter correspondent continues. which at the nearest point eastwards is only seven miles from Orel and at its farthest, in the extreme north-west is 65 miles from Orel. The Russians south of Orel have driven a series of very deep wedges into the German defences and have encircled a number of enemy garrisons. The Russians in this sector nevertheess are up against the biggest divisions of the Second German Tank Army. The British United Press Moscow correspondent reports that bitter tank battles tonight are raging north and south of Orel, where the Germans have thrown in fresh masses of armour in a massive new effoi t to prevent the encirclement of the city. Russian tank reinforcements, which were flung in to counter the German move, are reported to be holding everywhere and have even made a new advance in some areas. The rival tank forces are locked in a struggle under the worst weather conditions for armoured fighting.