HEAVY SLAUGHTER OF NZILS ON TIE DON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 169, 20 July 1942, Page 4

HEAVY SLAUGHTER OF NZILS ON TIE DON

CEASELESS BATTLE Enemy Drawing Men From Other Fronts UP.A. and British Wireless. Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, July 19. Messages from Moscow show that the continued severity of the enemy pressure, though still keeping the pressure critical, especially in the south, has in no way broken Russian resistance anywhere. Appealing to the Red Army to exert the utmost effort to halt the Germans in the South, Red Star says that if the enemy there achieves his aim the threat to the Fatherland will increase ten-fold.

"Can we hold the enemy absoluely?" asks Red Star. It answers "Yes. The defenders of the Soviet can and must find strength to stem the Germans and bleed them white. This is demanded by the Fatherland, the fate of which is being decided on the battlefield."

The fighting in the Voronezh area continues with unabated fury. The Red Army is slowly recapturing the lost ground in spite of the savage resistance of the Germans, who continually bring up fresh men and tanks in face of losses. The Soviet forces continue to hold the initiative, while Germans are on the defensive and are feverishly erecting fortifications between the Don and Voronezh Rivers, and digging tank traps to protect their tlanks. Simultaneously the Germans are trying the bring up reinforcements across the Don, but Soviet pilots are wrecking the crossings. The Germans are now constructing drawbridges and camouflaging them by day, using them by night. These bridges, however, are only partially successful as Soviet bombers and artillery hammer them by day and night. The Russians have now halted the enemy advance on the Voronezh for six days.

In trying to distract the Soviet forces from the city the Germans have intensified their activity in the northern sector, but have been frustrated. In the southern sector the Russians have followed up and recaptured two settlements. They are also continually harassing German concentrations on the eastern and western banks of the Don.

In the central part of the main battle line, on the Bryansk front, where for days severe fighting has taken place, the situation has now become calm. Here, as at Voronezh, some 250 miles to the south-east, the Germans have been forced to defend themselves behind fortifications. A large part of the enemy's forces have been switched elsewhere, apparently to the Voronezh area. Drive Along Railway The Germans are concentrating their strongest forces in the drive down the Voronezh-Rostov railway. In their coastal advance along the Sea of Azov they claim to have reached a point 10 miles north-west of Rostov. Fierce fighting is taking place at Migulinskaya and between Millerovo and Astachov, which is the eastward limit of the thrvfct towards Stalingrad. The Vichy radio describes the battle in the region of Astachov as exceeding in violence the battle of Kharkov. It says that the Germans have reached Stepanovka, 30 miles south-east of Millerovo, and that German motorised units advancing along the coast of the Sea of Azov have occupied Sinjavsk, a small town 15 miles from Rostov.

A correspondent says the Soviet forces have made a remarkable recovery after their position seemed almost hopeless. Tney are hurling powerful forces of the enemy back across the river.

The Russians are almost exuberant about the swing over from defence to attack around Voronezh. The Moscow radio says: "In the bloody battles the initiative is passing into our hands. We are winning back territory yard by yard and house by house. The strength of our counter-blows is increasing, but the enemy is still resisting bitterly. The battle grows ever fiercer." One dispatch from Moscow says the Germans, in their determination to hold their bridgeheads at all costs, are flinging in units from other fronts. A broadcast from Moscow to the National Broadcasting Company of America states that Voronezh is in ruins and that the population has been evacuated. U.S. Aircraft in Battles According to the British United Press, American Airacobra fighters manned by Russians are taking part in the defence of Voronezh. They shot down 38 enemy planes in two days. American Boston and Boeing bombers also are giving a good account of themselves. On the Leningrad front a number of German parachutists have been captured. Announcing this, Moscow radio said the Germans were armed with rifles and wireless transmitters, but were wearing civilian clothes. The Russians have captured a large German stronghold on the Lake Ilmen front.