The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-05-13

biAWt N AAAoAAA &hs@@AA AANA9 9tesA S%NA gA4 the southern front" he said.
 He added that the British ''had no details" of reports that the Ger mans were using a new nerve gas"
 we understand that the Ger mans are equipped with new respir- ators, but we don't consider that pointed to a new poisonous gas, but merely to progress in gas masks and we attached no particular dgnid- canoe to it," he said.
 The German radio boasted about an entirely new weapon" that was "the most interesting feature of fighting" on the peninsula, but gave no details. Berlin correspondents of Stockholm newspapers said 1t was a "non-poisonou nevre gas" or a device that threw mines filled with liquid air, both of which the Germans were using in the Crimea.
 Like GOebbel's "Gas"
 The general opinion was that the nerve gas" and liquid air mines" were similar to the hot air propa- ganda Minister Josef Goebbels has manufactured in the past before German adventures.
 London observers thought that the German attack was no more than a reconnaissance in force to find out how strong the Russians were, and said the Germans evi- dently had found out that the Rus- sians spent the winter making strong Notifications on the penin- sula and bringing up forces to block Hitler's path to the oil of the Cau- casus.
 Just before radio Berlin broad cast HitleHs communique, 1t stressed the might of Soviet preparations in the Crimea.
 It said the Russians aimed to use the Crimea as springboard for a flanking offensive against the German southern front, and "these are the powerful positions that the German and Rumanian troops are now attacking, after having thwarted during the winter the Soviet attempt to outfiank the German southern front"
 By HENRY SHAPIRO
 United Pres Staff COrrespondent)
 Moscow, May 13-UP)-Soviet troops supported by American and British tanks were reported today to be inflicting steadily mounting losses on Adolf Hitler's Spring re- serves" of troops and planes on the fifth day of the battle of the Kelch peninsula.
 TodayS Soviet high command communique reported that nothing of significance" had occurred over- night on any of the fronts, but other advices reaching Moscow from the Crimea indicated that the Red army-trading blow for blow-had held the Nazis to almost no gains.
 The high commands communique made no specific mention of the Kerch struggle, at the gateway to the Caucasus oil fields, but told of the annihilation of parts of one of Hitler's spring divisions" identi- fled as the 539th, in fierce fighting in an unidentified sector.
 The Leningrad radio reported that heavy fighting had broken out again in the marshlandS around the former Czarist capital, nearly 2,000 miles north of the Crimean battlefront, and that "the SovietS are advancing despite German re- siStance."
 On the Kalinin front TOO Ger mans were killed and large quanti- ties of booty taken in Q Russian attack, today's communique report ed. Russian guerillas operating in the German rear. near Leningrad and Kalinin were said to have killed more than 900 Germans in the last two months.
 The communique said that in one sector of the southern front, per- haps to the west of Kerch and the Kerch Straits, Russian troops cap- tured German defense zone, killed 150 of the enemvy and took nuYner- ouS prisoners as well as quantities of weapons and ammunition of all types.
 Military dispatches reaching Mos- COW said squadrons of Nazi dive bonlbers were droning ahead of Hit- lers spring reserves" at various points along the 2OOO-mile front, attempting to blast open paths for infantry drives.
 At one posnt these fresh German reserves, possessing a numerical superiority of four to one, were said to have met disaster at the hands of the Red army forces after driv- ing the Russians back 100 to 200 yards.
 "Our unit commander rapidly brought up artillery and began counter-attack along the entire front" one report said. "The spring Germans ran back aban- doning the bodies of their soldiers, arms and their ammunition.
 "The Soviet forces completely re- gained the lost ground and im- proved their positions after com. pletely routing the 539th German infantry regiment and units of the 385th division"
 The latest official Red army re- ports of the fighting on the Kerch peninsula said the Russians had stubbornly fought the German as- saults throughout yesterday.
 It asserted that a squadron or Stormovik planes commanded by Lieutenant Mospanov, in raiding German airdrome, had set l9 enemy planes ol fire and damaged 22 others. Dispatches from the front said the Black Sea fleets air arm destroyed more than 20 German planes and rentilsed an attack m A