The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-05-18

Parachutists started dropping be- hind the Russian lines in key Sec- tors in groups of 120 and upwards.
 Front dispatches said many were killed by snipers and machine gum ners before they reached the ground and that Red army men wiped out the rest with hand grenade, bayonet and trench knife.
 The Russian forces, their seven day advance unimpeded by the Ger man tactics, continued 8 jubilant drive forward on a 100 mile front, through blazing villages and over the bodies of German dead.
 Pravda's correspondent on the Kharkov front said that repeated German counter r-attacks with tanks some of them drawing armored trailers loaded with infantry re- serves-were repulsed. In one sec- tor 75 of fleet of 150 of these trail- er-tanks were destroyed, it was said.
 Many of the Nazi parachute troops were picked off in the air by Russian sharpshooters and others were killed by the sabres of charging Soviet cavalrymen as soon as they reached the ground, Pravda said.
 New Soviet Tanks Are Terrors
 The Red armys new 50-ton Kim Voroshilov" tanks-large land bat tleships-were sad to be terrorizing the Germans who have few guns able to pierce their thick steel
 Everywhere the Red air force holds superiority in the air." the Pravda correspondent said. A noon communique said:
 Tn the Kharkov direction our troops, breaking the enemy's resist. ance, continue to forge ahead"
 It said the Russian drive had pushed on relentlessly throughout the night.
 The commuinque admitted that in the Kerch Peninsula of the Cri- mea fierce fighting was now in pro- gress in the town of Kerch, and it was indicated that the Russian forces, pressed back to the four- mile strait opposite the Caucasus, were making last stand.
 There was every sign that the Kharkov offensive, far from dimin- ishing in intensity, was gaining in momentum and power.
 The Germans sent up tank and airplane reserves in vain attempt to take the initiative.
 In one section, the Germans hurled 150 tanks with infantry-car- rying armored trailers into the line attempting to relieve a trapped German garrison.
 Caught Tanks in Trap
 The Russians drew in, permitting the tanks to wedge into their posi- tion, and then droW out, destroying more than 75 of the tanks and dis persing the rest.
 In another sector the Russians repulsed IS furious tank assaults, destroying 43 tanks.
 The tank-trailer corps apparent ly was resorted to in answer to the Russian tank-borne infantrymen who supported by mechanized troops were reported fighting a grim and merciless battle in the center of the main German Notifications before Kharkov.
 Unconfirmed reports said the east ern suburbs of Kharkoy, Russia's fourth city and key to the entire southern front, were ablaze, indi- eating that Russian troops might be only 10 miles from the city.
 To the south, the tirelessly driv- ing Red army had pressed close to the railroad junction of Krasno- grad, 60 miles southwest of Khar- kov, where they threatened the enemy's vital main line railroad to Kiev, Adolf Hitlers headquarters.
 Front dispatches told of an in- fernal Welter of battle over a vast frontal area in which Russian Cos- sack cavalry men slashed through | broken, fleeing German formations in some sectors and Red army planes, completely dominating the air, swept at will over the front, hy- ing as low as TO feet, machine gum ming troops, bombing Notifications and harassing retreating German transport columns fighting for pre- cadence on the crowded roads to the rear,
 Advancing Rapidly
 Tn its first detailed report of the | Kharkoy offensive, now revealed to have started at dawn last Tuesday, Russia reported as of yesterday