Evening star., 1942-05-15
Reds Reported to Have Smashed
Throuqh Kharkov Inner Defenses>
Driving Nazi Forces Before Them
Soviet Resistance
On Kerch Heights
Broken, Foe Says
b. the Associated Press.

3, the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, May 15.-The Red
Army drove ahead against
Kharkov today, recapturing a
number of nearby communities
and forcing the Germans into
retreat after brushing aside
counterattacks in which the
Nazis vainly threw in their re-
serves, front-line dispatches re-
ported.
(Sweeping across the Donets
River on 50-mile front, Marshal
Semeon Timoshenko's mechan-
lied Red Army was reported in
London tonight to have crashed
through the inner defenses of
Kharkov in at least two places,
driving the Germans before them.
diplomatic sources in London
said they had heard that Adolf
Hitler was so taken aback by
the unexpected power of the
Soviet attack that he had in
structed his Ambassador to Toxic
to increase pressure on Japan for
an attack on Russia.
CThis argument to Japan was
said to be that Russia had con-
centrated so much on the Euro
pean front that she could offer
little resistance to an attack
against SiberiaD
Despite bad weather which ham,
pered tank and aerial operations,
the Russians deepened their pene-
tration of the Nazi positions and
advanced over roads Uttered with
hundred of German bodies and
many smashed tanks and cannon,
said Red Star, official army paper.
1t described the whole continuing
operation as another heavy defeat"
for the Germans who have held the
important Ukrainian steel city since
October.
Stubborn fighting continued $50
miles to the south, on the Kerch
Peninsula, where a German thrust
has twice forced the Russians back
Qn Berlin the German high
command claimed that Russian
resistance on the heights before
Kerch had been broken and that
German and Rumanian columns
are at the gates of the town. The
communique said fighting was
continuing in the Kharkov region.
CA British military spokesman
said the Russian Kerch army
was retiring in good order and
they are not licked YETI
Kharkov Drive Gigantic.
All Soviet accounts emphasized
the gigantic nature of Marshal Sc
neon Timoshenko's Kharkov offen-
sive.
"A major tank combat took place
in one sector, with large number
of tanks participating on both
Sides" said Red Star.
Forcing water barrier, our
tanks by powerful thrust split the
enemy's concentration of troops and
drove a wedge into his defenses.
Then our infantry moved into
the breach and consolidated the oc-
cupied positions"
More than 20 wrecked German
tanks we're found at single point,
the Russian accounts said.
Apparently referring to the same
action, other reports said the Red
Army was operating on the west
bank of large river which it had
crossed earlier while the stream still
was icecoated.
The Germans blew up all bridges,
but the Russians threw up new ones
and poured across during storm of
German aerial bombs. Then they
famed out on the western shore.
Artillery Pounded Gaps.
The first line of German defenses,
which the Russians said was cap
tured two days ago, was described
as a vast zone of pillboxes. anti
tank obstacles, minefelds and forti-
fed farmhouses, covering every open
space with a heavy crossflre of
But the Red artillery pounded
gaps in the series of Notifications,
then the tanks rolled forward and
the infantry charged to clean up the
positions with flashing bayonets.
Gn London a Reuters dispatch
from the German frontier" said
the Russians had pushed 7 miles
west of the Donets River, appar-
emily the stream the Russian
accounts failed to identify.
(The Germans still are "re-
tiring slowly while awaiting re-
Inducements, this dispatch said.
This would place the Red Army
about 20 miles from the center
of KharkovD
The Russians said they held air
initiative on the southwestern front,
having destroyed % German planes
in that area on Wednesday and yes
terday against the loss of three of
their own.
German reserves desperately tried
and when these
failed they attempted ruse, one
unit retreating in the center while
the f1anks held, said Red Star.
The Russians, with equal guile,
1See RIISSIA PAGE A-3l