AXIS MECHANIZED HORDES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 259, 31 July 1942, Page 5

AXIS MECHANIZED HORDES

Two Big Pushes RUSSIANS’ STAND DELAYED ?

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.! LONDON, July 30. Though reports from Moscow yesterday indicated that the resistance on the southern front was stiffening, the German drive was making headway in several important sectors and the invaders threat against the north Caucasian oilfields and the Kuban wheats fields in the Western Caucasus was increasing every hour. Moscow admitted that the situation was very grave. The heaviest German pressure is apparently below Rostov, where the Germans are fanning out southward and eastward. Every man, tank and plane the Germans are able to muster is now fighting in the Don Basin, says the Moscow correspondent of the "Daily Express.” Divisions from France, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria Holland, Italy and Spain, and even one from Finland, have been flung into the battles of the Volga and the Caucasus. Tanks have been drawn from all. the fronts, and also planes from Egypt. A fourth German crossing has been thrown across the Don near Zymlyanskaya, where the battle is steadily increasing in bitterness. Soviet flying columns continue to harass the German, army massed in the Don elbow opposite Stalingrad, and the mam Russian forces here have plainly not yet joined battle. , . The Germans are now dropping leaflets over Leningrad saying they are about to storm the city, but the defenders are ready tor anything.

The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says: “The Germans below Rostov are swinging east-south-east from the Bataisk area to Selysk, while the panzers which have broken through at Zymlyanskaya are also seriously threatening the BakuStalingrad railway, which is the sole long-range communication with the Caucasus that so far has not been cut. ’Tlie panzers broke through in considerable depth, but they are paying a heavy price for whatever progress is being made. “The news from the Zymlyanskaya River front is somewhat better. The Germans at one point have been driven back under a terrific Russian hammer-blow, which shattered the enemy resistance after fluctuating battles.” According to the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times,” though the German foothold on the left bank of the Don near Zymlyanskaya is- most precarious and is 'being subjected to constant heavy Russian attacks, fur- ( ther German progress must be consid- ( eted inevitable. In spite of the impressive German advance of the last few weeks, Marshal Timoshenko’s armies do not appear to be shattered or even greatly disordered. The Russian withdrawal is being carried out with a deliberateness that still suggests that it is in conformity with an originally conceived plan. Stand Further Back?

Tlie Moscow representative of “The Times” says: “Marshal Timoshenko’s main defence line Is not necessarily the Don River, though a stronger stand is being made there than on the steppes. The severest battles will possibly occur along the slight hills some distance back from the river, though every effort is being made to impede the German crossings. The big battle for Zymlyanskaya is now in its fourth day, and it is still preventing the release of a large enemy army for operations across the Don. "The danger to the Rostov sector is heightened by the constant threat from General von Manstein’s 11th Army, in the Crimea, which presumably has regroupcd and rested and is poised for a leap across the Kerch Straits to the Taman Peninsula.” First. Stiffening. “The first signa of stiffening of the Russian resistance in the Don battles is apparent,” said a correspondent of the National Broadcasting Corporation, in Moscow yesterday. “The situation has not improved yet, but the Russians have brought up fresh reinforcements in the Don elbow and in the B’atisk zone, below Rostov. “Russian counter-attacks in the Zymlyanskaya area are more frequent, and the stubborn Russians are striking firmly round Voronezh and clearing the city districts step by step.” Vichy radio reported tliat the Russians have massed enormous armoured forces at Kalach and firmly hold strategic heights there 50 miles from Stalingrad. The Germans are attempting,to converge on the confluence of the Rivers Don and Iloylia, north-west of Stalin grad, but the Russians are putting up a powerful defence, the radio said.» The Russians 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 bank of the Donetz about the confluence with the Don. Carnage At Voronezh. A Soviet communique yesterday said that 10,000 Germans had been killed in the Voronezh area during the past 10 days, and that the Russians captured much war material. The Germans still held one bridgehead across the upper Don opposite Voronezh, it was reported. • Moscow reports that the recent fighting on the Bryansk front resulted in the destruction of the 10th German Motorized Regiment, two battalions of which were annihilated, 100 tanks destroyed, and much booty captured. The Germans’ losses are increasing daily. Prisoners report that their units lost between one-third and onehalf of their effective strength. A Russian unit on the Kalinin front wiped out 500 Germans in an engagement which lasted eight minutes. The Russians were returning from operations in the German rear. The Germans tried to ambush them, but the Russians remained’under cover for two davs while scouts investigated German strongpoints. The scouts found that the Germans supped regularly at 10 p.m., and the Russians suddenly attacked on the evening of the third day and wiped out the Germans to a man. The Russians then rejoined the main forces.

Moscow announced yesterday that Russian warships in the Gulf of Finland sank three enemy transports totalling 19,000 tons. Messages from Leningrad report a gradual increase in activity round the city.