The Wilmington morning star., 1942-05-24
RUSSIANS ADMIT
KERCH CAPTURED
CONTINUED from Page One)

against IA losses to the Soviet air
force.
Warfront dispatches received be.
fore the midnight communiuue was
issued indicated that the battle for
Kharkov had taken on the grinding
character of a Verdun as the Gerr
mans throwing in a three-to-one
superiority in men and machines,
strove to develop their thanking Of
fensive in the Izyum-Barvenkova
sector while the Russians ham
mered necessarily at the main
prize.
For the first time since the start
OF the Russian offensive May IL, a
hint of some German progress was
contained in Red Star dispatch
which admitted the Germans were
having alternate successes"
But Russian dispatches described
the battle in the main as a stupen-
dous see-saw struggle.
Wedges Checked
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 power
fully fortified 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
dispatches said their broad opera
tions continued to be offensive.
(The Germans declared the So
Wet mass attack, starting May IL
with the equivalent of about 80 in
fantry, cavalry and armored divis-
ions, had been broken completely.
The German counterattack, start
ing May II, cut into the base of
the Russian salient, and a general
counteroffensive along the whole
Kharkov front has been underway
for two days, the Germans said.
HARD F1gnC1nS
In the Izyum-Barvenkova area,
80 miles below Kharkov the hard.
est fighting centered. The Ger
man attempt to drive a spear into
the Soviet flank there cost $4,000
dead in three days, Soviet accounts
said.
The Nazis were declared to have
three to one superiority in men
there, and a commensurate super
iority in machines.
The roads and countryside were
hard and dry, facilitating swift ar
mored maneuvers which the Rus
slams met with smashing artil-
lery fire.
At one point, 80 German tanks
we're reported destroyed by artil-
lery in a five-hour battle.
A picture of the sWaying lines
was given in a dispatch telling of
the Russian capture, loss, then re-
capture of villages or strong points.
Street fighting was reported IN
one large settlement and the Ger
man reserves of men and ma
chimes rushed in to make 'lnces-
SAINT attacks were said to switch
groups of 40 and so tanks from
point to point in a fierce probing
process. Then they combined all
their weapons into what was called
a 'smeat grinding machine"
The Red air force reported the
destruction of 72 tanks and $50
trucks and the slaughter or dis
persal of more than 1000 troops in
single day.
Red Star said that in a great
tank battle fought early in the
Kharkov offensive, $50 enemy tanks
which broke through gap in Rus
sian lines finally were hurled
back, the retreating Germans leav-
ing 63 burned-out maehines on the
field and dragging 40 other damag-
ed ones with them.
While the Russians reported
fighting st1n going on in Kerch
peninsula in the Crimea, summer
like weather spreading steadily
northward opened new expanses OF
terrain to large-scale operations.