VAIN EFFORTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1943, Page 4

VAIN EFFORTS

BY GERMANS IN KHARKOV AREA 100,000 FRESH AXIS TROOPS HEAVILY DEFEATED. MOUNTING ENEMY duoSES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, August 18. The 100,000 German shock troops and motorised troops which in the last 24 hours have been transferred to the Kharkov area in a bid to recapture the vital KharkovPoltava Railway were defeated in a huge battle several miles west of Kharkov, Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says.

These crack reserves for two days depeatcdly counter-attacked, with strong tank and air support, he adds, but failed to break the Red Army’s grip on a ten-mile stretch of the Khar-kov-Poltava Railway. The enemy today, weakened by very heavy losses, has been forced back beyond his original positions. The correspondent says that around Kharkov itself, where the Russians for several days have been within four miles of the city, and where some places in the outskirts have changed hands several times, German counter-attacks were beginning to show signs of exhaustion. The effort to hold up the Russian offensive during the past four days has cost the enemy the equivalent of six divisions killed or wounded. The Germans, since the capture of Byelgorod 13 days ago, have lost 30,000 killed in the Kharkov area alone. The defence of Bryansk in the past fortnight has cost the Germans at least 30,000 more. The Russians, after many days of fighting, have gained an important forest and river area south-east of Kharkov, thereby materially strengthening their left flank.

STEADY PROGRESS

SOVIET OFFICIAL REPORT.

(British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.7 p.m.) RUGBY, August 18

Tonight's Russian communique reports that Soviet troops in the Kharkov area, in face of fierce German,| counter-attacks today, pushed forward at some points 44 to 64 miles, occupying more than 50 places, including a town 22 miles southeast of Kharkov, on the main line connecting Kharkov with Izyum on the Donetz. In the Bryansk region, the Red Army continued its offensive, advancing four to five miles in some sectors and capturing nine large villages and 30 small ones. They captured two railway stations, one 22 miles north-east of Bryansk and one 20 miles east of Bryansk. In other sectors the Russians carried out fighting reconnaissances and there have been exchanges of artillery fire. The Moscow radio, reviewing the op,erations of the last week, stated that Soviet troops developing an offensive in the Bryansk direction have, in the period between August 11 and 17, occupied over 550 localities. It is further reported that on all fronts, between August 10 and 16, 501 German tanks were destroyed or disabled by Soviet troops and 462 German planes shot down.