Stiffer Front To Enemy Along Don

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 178, 30 July 1942, Page 5

Stiffer Front To Enemy Along Don

NEW FORCES STRIKE

Huns Use Thousands Of Tanks In Bid For Caucasus

(United Press Association.—Copyright— Rec. 2 p.m.) London, juiy 29. Th<! ,lrst of stiffening Russian resistance in the D ar<S ,* P f* ren 'i National Bro.dca.ting Coreoratiort correspondent at Moseow He add. that the situation h„ not r«nu?n .Heh IK RW "TI h ?, Ve brought "P reinforcements m the Don elbow and the Batai.lt zone, R u „,an counterattacks in the Tsymlyan.kaya area, midway on the lower Don, are more frequent and stubborn The Russian, are .hiking dimly .round Voronezh, and are clearing the city and diatricta step by step. * A bitter struggle i, proceeding for the bridgehead near Tsymlyanakaya. Press messages from Moscow report that the Germans have forced the defenders back from the south bank of the Don An this sector and are consolidating their gains, but Russian resistance is hardening. The Red Army is counter-attacking strongly Russian troops apparently are still fighting on the right bank of the Don, not only in the eastern loop of the great bend opposite kalach but also on the left of the Donetz, about the confluence with the Don. a l. T he . lateßt messages from Moscow reveal that 20 German tank divisions, totalling 10,000 tanks, have been thrown into the German bid fo* the Caucasus. Vichy radio report, that the Russian, have maoed enormous armoured force, at Kalach. and firmly hold the .trategic Kalach heights, 50 miles west of Stalingrad. Vichy radio also states that the Germans are attempting to converge at the confluence of the Rivers Don and Iloylia, but the Russians are putting up A powerful defence. Threat Beyond Rostov Hourly Increasing Although Moscow reports indicate that the southern front resistance is stiffening, the German drive is making headway in r ! mportant ffftors, and the invaders threat against the North Caucasian oilfields and the Kuban wheatfields is hourly increasing.

Moscow admits that the situation is "very grave." The heaviest German pressure is apparently below Rostov, where the rmans "°® the Rostov bridgehead are fanning out southwards and eastwards. An unconfirmed report says advanced German mobile forces are approaching Kushchovsk.

A German High Command report claims that the Germans pushing southwards from Rostov have occupied an unnamed *rver, from the source to the mouth at the Sea of Azov.

The Stockholm Svenaka Dagbladets Berlin correspondent •ays Rostov is a smouldering pile of ruins. The Russians scorched everything The city presents a picture similar to that of devastated Dunkirk. The bridge spanning the Don. the warehouses and factories, and everything of vital importance, was blown up or set on fire.

. . R , r ' T Star - Soviet military journal, reports that the Germans two month* have transferred 14 infantry and two tank divisions from France to Ruasia.