Evening star., 1942-05-24
FoothoId Gained
By Hitler for
Caucasus Attack
By the Associated Press.

MOSCOW, Sunday, May "a
The Russians announced Off
cially today that their forces
have abandoned the Kerch
peninsula, Eastern Crimean gate
to the Caucasus, withdrawing
troops and equipment lin full
order" and they reported still
bloody and indecisive fighting on
the Kharkov front.
by order of the Soviet high COM
mand, our troops have left the Kerch
Peninsula" the midnight Soviet
communique said. The troops and
their equipment have been evacu-
ated. The evacuation was carried
out in full order"
tThe German high command,
announcing complete victory for
Nazi arms in the Kerch PENN
sula, stated Friday they had cap
tured 169,1 1873 Soviet prisoners
there along with 2S4 tanks and
1897 guns)
The abandonment of the penin-
sula left the Germans in possession
of virtually all of the Crimea ex-
cept the region around beleaguered
Sevastopol, the great Soviet Black
Sea naval base, and gave Adolf Hit
Ter possession of a foothold sepa-
rated from the oil-dotted Caucasus
by only the narrow waters of the
Kerch Straits.
The Germans first captured Kerch
November 16 in the last gasp of
their 1941 offensive. Then came the
winter and the Russian counterof-
fensive. On December 81, Red
troops, aided by the Black Sea fleet,
stormed and took both Kerch and
Feodosiya from the Germans, but
Withdrew again early this year from
Feodosiya, port 10 miles southwest of
Kerch.
Reds Consolidate Positions.
On the great embattled Kharkov
front, the Russians said Marshal
Semeon Timoshenko's armies had
consolidated their positions and
hurled back German tank and in
fantry counterattacks in the mighty
struggle for that Pittsburgh of
Russia"
In the Izyum- -Barvenkova sector
south of Kharkov, stubborn fighting
still ragged with Russian troops deal
ing heavy blows to the Nazis after
repulsing counterattacks.
Elsewhere along the front from
Leningrad to the south the Soviet
.communique said Red forces were
on the offensive in several sectors.
The communique listed so Ger
man planes destroyed yesterday
against IA losses to the Soviet air
force
Warfront dispatches received be-
fore the midnight communique was
issued indicated that the battle for
Kharkov had taken on the grinding
character of a Verdun as the Ger
mans throwing in three to-one
superiority in men and machines,
strove to develop their fanking Of
fensive in the Izyum- m-Rarvenkova
sector while the Russians hammered
necessarily at the main prize.
Big See-Saw Struggle.
For the first time since the start
of the Russian offensive May IL, a
hint of some German progress was
contained in a Red Star dispatch
which admitted the Germans were
having alternate successes" But
Russian dispatches described the
battle in the main as a stupenduous
see-saw struggle.
Such wedges as the Germans
were admitted to have driven in
were reported checked or thrown
back, while in the main action, the
Russian push toward Kharkov, the
Soviet Information Bureau declared
the Germans had been elected from
yet another of their powerfully for
titled hedgehog positions.
Although the communique said
Red Army men were engaged in
consolidating their positions"-a
phrase which suggested a digging
in to halt the Germans-Soviet dis
patches said their broad operations
continued to be offensive.
(The Germans declared the So
Wet mass attack, starting May IL
with the equivalent Of about 80
infantry, cavalry and armored di-
visions, had been broken COM