DESPERATE DON STRUGGLE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 256, 28 July 1942, Page 5

DESPERATE DON STRUGGLE

Efforts To Stem Break-Through STEPPE AND CITY (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.: LONDON, July 27. The Soviet High Command today repeats its report of last night that desperate hand-to-hand fighting is going on in the shattered suburbs of Rostov. It adds that the enemy made another breach in the defences of the city. The Germans are developing their offensive to the south and east The Russians are fighting desperately in their effort to stem the break-through at Zymlyanskaya, where German armoured divisions are towing troops across the Don at two places, and are also probing the defences for more crossings.

A Moscow message last night said that while Hitler was rushing up reserves in an effort to break through toward the Caucasus, the Red Army had counter-attacked and was endeavouring to wipe out the enemy on the south bank of the Don in the region of Zimlyanskaya and prevent further crossings. The Russians were inflicting heavy losses? but the Germans continued to widen the area which they had captured. Half-a-dozen battles have taken place in the last 48 hours in the open steppe country of the Don loop, and front-line dispatches report that the Germans are numerically superior, specially in tanks. The Russians still hold the initiative at Voronezh and have recrossed the Don -at two points. Fierce Engagements.

The Russians north-west of Voronezh ere firmly holding the crossings gained from the Germans and are fighting toward another crossing, says Moscow radio, quoting the latest front-line reports. Fierce engagements are going on south of Voronezh, where the Germans failed to dislodge the Russians from the west Dank of the Don. A group of Russians on the night of July 2-1 crossed the river by pontoon and' by swimming, diverting the attention of the enemy while the main body forced the river elsewhere. The battle lasted all night, and the Russians on the following morning broke into the outskirts of a populated place. The Soviet headquarters last night stated: “On July 26 Soviet troops continued fierce fighting in the regions of Voronezh, Zymlyanskaya, Novo Cherkassk and Rostov. No important change took place in other sectors of the front. During the week July 19 to 25 the Germans lost 299 planes and our losses were 137 planes.” The direction of German fighting in south Russia is believed in London to suggest that the enemy plan is to strike south-eastward at the northern Caucasus (stated British Official Wiredec’s). t The Moscow correspondent of ‘ The Times” says: “The reports of the past three days’ battle on the middle Don are confused, but the Germans are clearly attacking strongly toward Stalingrad from the west and south. The Soviet tanks are not remaining on the defensive and are attacking the advancing enemy columns from the flanks. “The Germane in the Voronezh sector have been throwing in heavier infantry forces which were drawn hastily from the rear, but some of these divisions are being rediverted to the Bryansk front, where Increasing Russian pressure threatens the north of the German salient. The Russians are etill on the offensive at Voronezh and are wearing down the enemy. The Germans are making a great effort to stem the Russian advance south of Voronezh, and they retain the triangle between the Don and Voronezh Rivers south of the fork, but the Russians have driven a wedge into the enemy positions after crossing the Don. No Immediate Relief.

“The Germans on the Bryansk front seven times attacked a hill which was recently captured by the Russians. All the attacks were beaten back, and the Germans lost more than 1000 men. The Russians then attacked after an air bombardment and forced a river and broke the first line of the German defences, forcing the Germans to bring up additional divisions. Cossacks beat off counter-attacks in which the Germans used 110 tanks.” The correspondent concludes: “The news as a whole does not give ground to suppose that the outcome is likely to be favourable to the Russians without radical changes in the present trends. Rostov, the North Caucasus, and Stalingrad, in that order, stand in acute danger. The Russian successes at Voronezh and Bryansk have only a long-range effect on the south.”

The Germans yesterday had pushed on from one of the two bridgeheads which they established at Tzimlyanskaya and were threatening the railwav between Stalingrad and Krasnodar, which Is only 32 miles from the Don and across open country. The railway is the direct route between the Moscow region and the Caucasus. One of history’s greatest battles was raging in the Don River-Tzlmlyanskay-a region. The Russians who were still north of the Don were harrying the Germans from the west and east. Despite the swathes mown down by the advancing hordes, “Red Star” stated, the tempo of the German attack was sustained and even accelerating as more and more reinforcements w.ere brought up. Another Moscow message says that the Germans, using tanks, artillery and violent dive-bombing, are attempting to paralyse the Russian defences on the southern bank. The Russian Air Force is retaliating, bombing and engaging in dog-fights over the Don, but the Germans have concentrated enormous masses of planes. Tlie Russian guns arc also in action with desperate fury against the overwhelming German mechanized forces, and they have smashed a score of German pontoon crossings, and shot up rafts and flimsy boats made of wood and rubtier with which the Germans have been trying to force the Don. They have drowned more than 1000 and scattered many more, but the German hordes keep coming and the position has become worse m the past 48 hours. A German communique states that south and east of Rostov a crossing has been forced over the Don. The Russian attempts to bilill up an orderly and cohesive defensive front on the southern bank of the Don has failed, it is claimed. A Moscow communique states that Russian ships in the Gulf of Finland sank two enemy transports totalling 16,000 tone.