Current Events March 12, 1943; HEAVY ONSLAUGHT BY GERMANS REPULSED AT KHARKOV / AXIS UNITS STRIKE BACK IN DESERT / LARGE AIRFORCE ARMADA TAKES ONE OUR TO CROSS ENGLISH CHANNEL:

            The Charleston Gazette

            Charleston, West Virginia, Friday Morning,'March 12, 1943.

Heavy Onslaught at Kharkov

Repulsed by Soviet Armies;

8th Army Battles at Mareth

Russians Tighten

Grip Upon Vyazma

Ukraine .Battles Pictured

'Growing by Hour'

MOSCOW, March 11.—(INS)—

Soviet troops held firmly tonight before the Ukraine steel center

of Kharkov and in the face of heavy Nazi attacks inflicted

hundreds of casualties on the Germans and destroyed quantities

of their equipment. The Hussian steamroller now

driving west of Gzhatsk meantime continued to roll on to new gains,

and the Soviet pincers clamping shut about the vital enemy-held

base at Vyazma were tightened still further by the capture of Isakovo.

The latter town is 20 miles east of Vyazma and astride the Vyazma-

Kaluga railroad. Several other villages in this region also fell to the

advancing Soviets.

Axis Units Strike

At Desert Outpost

Thrust at Ksar Rhilane

Is Thrown Back

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN

NORTH AFRICA, March 11.—(INS)—Fast-moving units of the

British 8th army were disclosed tonight to be locked in combat

with Gen. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's forces at a point 50

miles west of Foum Tatahouine southern outpost of the fortified

Mareth line.

A communique issued at Allied

headquarters in North Africa told of renewed fish tins "nn the 8th

army front, where the British were revealed to have repulsed, with

heavy losses, enemy attacks near Ksar Rhilane. This desert outpost

lies some 50 miles, beyond Talahoune and the clash apparently

occurred when British units skirtingthe flank of the Mareth line and

enemy detachments, seeking to outflank the British positions, clashed

head-on. The region is 40 miles southwest of Toujane, itself 22 miles

west of the important town of Medenine.

Heavy Casualties Inflicted

Air Armada Takes

Hour Over Channel

LONDON, Friday. March 12.—

(AP)—A force of heavy bombers so large it took nearly an hour for

them to cross the English channel headed for somewhere on the German

occupied continent last night as the RAF kept hammering away

at tile Axis to soften them up for an expected invasion thrust.

The big bombers roared out over the same course followed

earlier this week -when Nuernberg and Munich were blasted in

large-scale attacks.

The planes flew above clouds which obscured the moon.