ONE OF HISTORY' GREATEST BATTLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 175, 27 July 1942, Page 3

ONE OF HISTORY' GREATEST BATTLES

OH THE LOWER DON ■ 1 Timoshenko's Strength Is Taxed To Utmost XJ.P.A. and British Wireless I Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, July 26. The Germans have pushed on ' from one of two bridgeheads estab- ' lished at Tsymlyanskaya and are ! now threatening the railway between • Stalingrad and Krasnador, which is j only 32 miles from the Don across ' open country. The railway is a direct route between the Moscow 1 region and the Caucasus. ' One of history's greatest battles is J going on on the Don River in the ] Tsymlyanskaya region, where the > Germans are attempting to widen j the bridgeheads and establish others • under the heaviest air and artillery : .screen. The Russian air force and j artillery have smashed repeated sal- , lies across the Don, while the Rus- i sians still north of the Don harry ' the Germans from the west and east despite advancing hordes. ; The Red Star states that the tempo ( of the German attacks has been sustained and is even accelerating as more and more reinforcements are brought up. The Germans are making multiple simultaneous attemps to cross. As Russian dive-bombers and artillery beat back one attempt the Germans launch another, taxing Marshal Timoshenko's strength to the utmost. German Tanks Reorganised The Times Moscow correspondent says von Kleist's Third Tank Corps, with an air shock group of 600 planes and 10 infantry divisions, is the spearhead at Tsymlyanskaya. The tank army has been radically reorganised since winter. No longer are the tank groups supported by lorried infantry, but by slowermoving corps, which are less vulnerable to counter-attack because of heavier Infantry and artillery support. Over the entire southern front, also far into the rear, the Red Air Force, reinforced by American machines, is highly active, adds the correspondent. Dive-bombers and Stormoviks are attacking mobile columns on the steppe roads, also in the valleys and by rivers, where tanks and lorries tend to congregate. Luftwaffe bombers, operating in dense groups with strong fighter support, are attacking Soviet communications. Transport planes are launching paratroops and rushing fuel to tank columns and lorries. Rostov Position Acute To-day's reports from Rostov state that the Germans have seized several defence lines, rendering the situation acute. Gallant Russian sorties are having some success, but It is emphasised that the enemy is considerably stronger in armour and the city is in great danger. The Russian midday communique records fighting in the regions of Voronfezh, Tsmylyanskaya, Novocherkassk and Rostov. The Russians are engaged in defensive operations atTsymlyanskaya, which is the area of chief interest at the moment. At one point the enemy succeeded in crossing the river. The Soviet air force attacked at a river crossing enemy troops and concentrations, and Soviet troops annihilated a unit which crossed a river. Another attack was repulsed on the same front and the enemy lost 600 killed. Stubborn fighting continued in the Voronezh region West of the town Russian troops advanced and took several hundred prisoners. On another sector of the Veronezh front the enemy, attempting to stem the Russian adr vance. launched a counter-attack with an infantry regiment just arrived from deep in the rear. They suffered heavy casualties. In the Rostov region great German tank columns are attempting to break the resistance of the Russian troops, who are fighting heroically and inflicting enormous losses. The direction of the German fighting is believed in London to suggest that ths enemy plan is to strike south-eastward at the Northern Caucasus. The Russians report that the fighting has a graver aspect, as the Germans are over the Don at two fortified positions. The Germans are trying to cross the Don at scores of places, and have concentrated masses of aircraft, which are steadily battering the left bank.

French Filtering the Lists

At Kuibyshev the Fighting French military attacl \ in a broadcast, revealed that General Bridaux, Vichy's Secretary of War, issued a secret circular early in June in which he said the French Army must not be absent from the region where the fate of Europe was being decided. It was therefore necessary to begin recruiting and organising troops to be sent to the Russian front. These troops, unlike Doriot's legion, would not wear the uniform of the German Army, but the regular French Army uniform. The attache declared that French uniforms would soon appear at the front, not under German colours, but shoulder to snoulder with the Red Army. At least 600,000 «nen, 2000 tanks and a whole air fleet are battering at the gates of Rostov, says the Moscow radio. The Soviet' journal Red Star says the Germans have considerable numerical superioritv and are gradually pressing the ~ defenders back. They have captured a number of advanced Russian defence lines.

Red Army rearguards are battling to the death to hold up German shock troops who penetrated the outer defence ring of Rostov, says the Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Mail. Soviet troops are manning every house and building left standing. The main roads and almost every side street are barricaded by tank traps and anti-tank posts. Machine-gun nests are established everywhere. Marshal Timoshenko has ordered the rearguards to "fight to the last, hold the enemy to the end, and inflict the maximum number of casualties." The Vichy radio says delayed-action bombs and mines are bringing down whole blocks of houses in Rostov, thus hindering the German occupation by forcing the troops to advance with the greatest caution.