KHARKOV BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1943, Page 3

KHARKOV BATTLES

RUSSIANS WIN FURTHER SUCCESSES I MORE GAINS ON BRYANSK FRONT. VILLAGES & RAILWAY STATIONS CAPTURED. ' LONDON, August 18. Russian forces in the Kharkov area have won further successes in the face of fierce German counter-attacks. A Russian communique states that Soviet troops today overcome enemy resistance and pushed forward at some points tci a distance of 4A to 6A miles. More than 50 inhabited places were liberated. The Russians also continued their offensive on the Bryansk front and have advanced four or five miles in some sectors. Nine large villages and more than 30 smaller ones have been captured, besides at least two railway stations.

On other sectors the Russians have carried out reconnaissances and exchanges of artillery and mortar fire.

FLANKING MOVE AGAINST GERMANS EAST OF DNIEPER. FIFTY DIVISIONS SAID TO BE IN DANGER. LONDON, August 17. Russian columns, smashing their way relentlessly against Bryansk and Kharkov, threaten to trap 50 German divisions east of the Dneiper River, in the Donetz Basin, the Kuban and the Crimea, state dispatches from Allied correspondents. Ono Russian column, carrying out a flanking movement against the. Desna River, on which it is believed the Germans are likely to attempt a stand on the Bryansk front, has driven further southward from Spas Dcmensk and occupied Degirevo, which is 60 miles north-west of Bryansk. The Moscow correspondent of the British • United Press says that further progress by this column would threaten the whole of the Desna line, and it should be watched very closely. FURIOUS FIGHTING VERY HEAVY ENEMY LOSSES. WEST OF KHARKOV & IN OTHER AREAS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.3 a.m.) RUGBY, August 18. The Moscow radio reports fierce German resistance in the Kharkov direction. The Germans are constantly bringing up big reserves and rushing them straight into battle. All enemy attempts to hold positions failed and the enemy suffered heavy losses, particularly in tanks. German soldiers taken prisoner, and letters found on dead officers and men, show that the German losses have been on a scale unknown till now. “The Red Star” writes: “The Germans are stopping tank attacks only when they have lost practically all the tanks used in an attack. In spite of all these attacks, the Germans have not improved their positions, but, on the contrary, have lost important positions. In several days of fierce fighting, the left flank of the Soviet troops has been secured.”

The “Pravda” reports that the Germans, having concentrated on a narrow sector of about nine miles, launched attacks by considerable forces. The Soviet troops wore down the enemy and repelled him. Yesterday, west of Kharkov, 4000 troops were wiped out, and 41 enemy tanks, mostly Tigers, were destroyed. Six German planes were shot down. The Germans are sparing neither life nor equipment in a desperate effort to regain vital communications cut by the Soviet troops. The Moscow radio also reports that Soviet troops are advancing in the Spas Demak area, meeting fierce enemy resistance. The Germans are clinging to every locality, every position, and practically every height, in attempting to stem the Soviet offensive. The Soviet Press reports the destruction of another Soviet city temporarily occupied by the German Fascist invaders. Gomel, which had a population of over 150,000 inhabitants before the war, has been reduced to less than 10,000, and the greater part of its buildings have been destroyed.