Evening star., 1942-05-19
Cossacks Smash
Al Nazis on
Kharkov Front
Planes and Tanks
Join in Drive
Against City
1y the Associated Press.

1y the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, May 19.-Cossacks,
charging wildly across a pontoon
bridge they themselves built
under Nazi artillery fire, have
recaptured large inhabited
locality" on the Kharkov front in
a spectacular phase of the con-
tinuing Russian advance, the
army paper Red Star reported
today.
Combining one OF the most ancient
military forms. cavalry, with the
most modern, the Russians covered
their daring riders with an umbrella
of warplanes and followed them up
with rumbling stream of tanks.
German parachutists, once used
for the offensive but now turned to
defense, were reported being drop
ped. particularly in an effort to re-
lieve encircled detachments.
One descent of more than 100
parachutists was reported to have
fallen squarely into a Red Army
guard unit which killed all Of them.
Other squads Of parachute troops
were reported shot to death in the
air or cut to bits by Cossack sabers
on the ground.
Cavalry Carries Anti-Tank Guns.
The cavalrymen themselves are
super r-modernized. carrying machine
guns, rifles, anti-tank and anti
aircraft guns as we'll as the tradi-
tional sabers.
The Germans sent planes speeding
TO the defense, but lost II in this
single heavy combat, Red Star said
The cavalrymen now are pursuing
the Germans, who abandoned large
quantities of equipment as they fell
back, the dispatch stated.
Gn London a military COM
mentator said Red Army troops
had driven to a depth of 80 or
40 miles through German lines
before Kharkov on a 60-mile
frontO
The recaptured town was not
identified Other dispatches from
the Kharkov front. key to the entire
southwestern sector. said an imme-
diate Red Army objective was a
highway linking two large towns,
and that a violent battle was raging
just east of this road.
The Germans are defending it
desperately, since they must keep it
free for movement of their reserves
r,,1r1inc cojd Pod Stor
Every slightest vantage point east
of the road Is a knot of German re-
sistance, but the determined Rus
slams are pushing ahead and already
have cracked defenses in one OF
the most important sectors.
Red Army machine gunners who
slipped past German pillboxes and
captured a village in the rear were
credited with this success. The Ger
mans, thus put between two fires,
were forced to fall back north and
southwest. said Red Star and many
OF them fed into the forest, dis
guised as civilians.
3 Costly Counterattacks.
The Rumanian 4th Infantry Divi-
sion, supported on both f1anks and
in the rear by Germans, made three
costly but futile counterattackS in
one region, the account added.
The Germans are throwing into
the Kharkov defense every tank
available, said front-line Ped Star
correspondent, because their in
fantry "wavers and falls back under
our pressure"
Nevertheless, he said, "the num-
Der of destroyed German tanks has
reached 400 and is growing with each
hour
AT first the German tank units
acted with great determination.
Once in a sector of four kilometers
(21z miles the Germans put into
action three tank columns, the first
of 100 machines, the second about
30, and the third so.
Tanks Became Less Active.
"The tanks in the rear pushed
ahead of those which were burning
until they too, were forced to halt
by our anti-tank fire.
Later the Fascist tank units be-
came less active. They now dis
play manifest caution and shrink
from anti-tank fire.
German infantry following each
tank column rushes from one side
to the other when 1t falls under our
fire.
The enemy's spring infantry
i,,ta otfonk yithnllt
tanks. A considerable part OF 1t
consists of green infantrymen
brought from France or modified
In Germany"
Many of these troops are towed
into battle in armored trailers be-
hind the tanks, but when the tanks
are knocked out the counterattack
is disrupted. Red Star said.
It credited the Germans with con-
tinual attempts. nevertheless, men
tioning one Soviet infantry force
which beat off IA successive tank
led counterattacks and another
which withstood Is.
Tanks Counterattack.
Soviet dispatches said Nazi tanks,
seeking to protect Kharkov, coun-
terattacked without infantry sup
port. Rifemen previously had been
hauled up in tank-drawn trailers.
Nszi parachutists were reported
used sparingly. by single platoon
or company rather than in larger
units. Prisoners were taken in IN
creasing numbers. Smelling by a
Russian artillery battalion was said
to have destroyed 10 German junk
ers-52 transport planes on an air.
drome near the front.
I'm one sector the Hitlerites
launched several tank counterat-
tacks," the Soviet Information Bu-
reau said. Men and officers Of
unit commanded by Comrade Rosko
routed the enemy and destroyed 80
German tanks"
Above the SCARED terrain of the
Kharkov region and other sectors
"a German planes were reported
destroyed Sunday, the largest figure
- y~aNv,th