RUSSIAN ARMIES WAIT ON LOWER DON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 165, 15 July 1942, Page 5

RUSSIAN ARMIES WAIT ON LOWER DON

STALIN'S STRATEGY

Strongest Barrier Before

Caucasus

United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, July 14

Although the full stream of von Bock's advance may have been interrupted at Voronezh by the valiant Russian counter-attack, the gravity of the German sweep south and south-eastwards is readily realisable from the capture of, or threat to, such places at Millerovo, Stalingrad, Migulinskaya and Voroshilovgrad.

The Times Stockholm correspondent says that apart from Voronezh and the 100-mile stretch of the Don to the southwards of Boguchar, the main battle front must now be considered as stretching between the junction of the Boguchar River with the Don down to the Sea of Azov, with the fronts and the north wing wheeling eastwards along the Don to the Don's elbow 40 miles from Stalingrad, which is on the Volga's corresponding elbow. The Russians are retiring to their main prepared line, roughly 200 miles long, along the lower Don, which is the strongest natural defence line before the approaches to the Caucasus. After the Dnieper was abandoned last year, the Russians were not expected to make a really determined stand before this line was reached, where presumably fresh armies are already stationed to meet and stem the German advance when the tired, though intact, Russian forces now fighting will pass through to rest and reorganise as reserves in the rear. Front Pivots on Rostov The Russians expect the hardest fighting in the Donetz Basin, south ad south-east of Lisitichansk, where the German pressure already threatens the local Russian flank and may compel the abandonment of several towns in a cluster southwards of the Donetz, particularly around Artemovsk. At the southern end, where the Sea of Azcv and Don front now pivots, the German positions have been stabilised since December and are about 50 miles from the Don's mouth below Rostov. It is certain, therefore, that no large-scale withdrawal here can figure in the Russian programme, and the Don can be crossed only after a major Russian defeat.

The Times Moscow correspondent says that 500 enemy tanks and two divisions of infantry have concentrated outside of Voronezh. Bitter, scrambling tank fights are raging between Voronezh and the Don region, which is a district of market gardens, semi-urban development and woods. Tanks mostly meet each other in groups of 40 or 50. The Russians in one sector of their counter-attack in the Voronezh area were compelled to withdraw. The latest enemy claims, the correspondent says, include a Berlin report received in Stockholm that a German panzer group pierced the defences of Pokrovsk and is now six miles from Rostov.

Paris radio claims that the Germans are fighting in the suburbs of Voroshilovgrad, about 100 miles north of Rostov.