Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-05-14

All WlQGer hIldIkON Ids UCCli q
major obstacle in the path OF
Soviet counterdrives. The Ger
mans captured it last October Is.
The Russians said masses of Red
Army reserves had gone into action
for the first time against Kharkov,
and declared:
Everything is being abandoned
by the Germans in great quantities
on the field of action"
The Red Army reported it was
maintaining the initiative all along
the line through Bryansk, and on
the western Kalinin, northwestern
Leningrad, Karelian and Arctic
fronts.
AS Red troops advanced over
Doggy terrain on the Lenlngrad
front. the Red Air Force reported
1t was dominating the skies in that
area.
On the Kalinin front maSsed artil-
lery was credited with forcing the
Germans to retreat after counter
attack.
Tanks Lead Soviet Drive.
The German high command
acknowledged that the Russians
were attacking repeatedly on the
Donets front, where Kharkov is To-
Gated. German troops were said to
be resisting strong enemy attacks
supported by tanks"
The attack on Kharkov is no mere
diversionary action to lessen enemy
pressure on Kerch, but is the real
thing, all Soviet accounts empha-
sized
Masses of reserves who have been
training just behind the front have
gone into action for the first time,
and assembled tanks and artillery
are striking at the Germans after
a pre- attack bombardment of Nazi
airdromes in the southwest zone,
the Russians said.
The broad drive across the
Ukrainian plains overshadowed both
the German advance in the narrow
Kerch peninsul and new, vigorous
Russian campaign in the north for
the further relief of beSieged Len
ingrad.
Airacobra and Tomahawk planes
from the United States, Hurricanes
from Britain, and both American
and British-made tanks are playing
big roles in the Kharkov and Len
ingrad offensives.
Shipment of American supplies
has lately increased in volume, and
British materials have been going to
Russia throughout the winter.
Cities Reported Taken By Nazis.
In the Kerch fighting the Ger
mans were reported by the Swiss
radio, quoting the Rumanian high
command, to have taken the cities
of Kerch and Takil, thus reaching
the gateway to the great Caucasus
oil fields. Kerch lies across mar
row strait from the Caucasus.
This report, which also was broad
cast by the Vichy radio, found no
confirmation in Berlin, which merely
reported that the port of Kerch
and shipping concentrations in these
waters were successfully bombed"
Adolf Hitler's headquarters as
serted that German troops in the
Crimea had won smashing victory
on the Kerch Peninsula and were
now relentlessly pursuing the de
feated' Russian Army.
The Soviet Information Bureau
said fierce battle continued on the
Kerch Peninsula.
Neither Axis nor Russian dis
patches definitely disclosed the cur
rent site of the fighting, but the
invaders apparently still were 80 or
IS miles from Kerch, the strait port
that is a nerve center of the Soviet
defense system before the oil-rich
Caucasus.
Heavy Fighting Around Leningrad.
simultaneously, Vichy French)
broadcast said the Russians had
launched massive attacks" paced
by violent aerial bombing, against
the German armies at Staraya Rus
ga and Novgorod, about l20 miles
south of Leningrad.
Pressing an apparently major at
tempt to break out of long besiegec
Leningrad, Red Army troops were
said to have crumpled the first Ger
man lines and captured many i'm
portant positions in the secondary
lines in a continuing advance.
The Russian Baltic feet has lief
Its base at Kronstadt, near Lenin
grad, and is cruising in the Gulf o
Finland" where the battleshiI
Marat has shelled German position
along the coast, the British radio
said
The Russian warships had beer
held at Kronstadt by ice, which nov
has disappeared, the broadcast said
Reds Drive Toward SmOlensk.
Fierce action was reported, too, OF
the Moscow front, with the Russian
driving toward the big German
winter base at Smolensk, 230 mile
west of the Soviet capital.
The days of fierce new battle
(see RUSSIA, Page A-40