NAZI WEDGE IN DEFENCES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 261, 3 August 1942, Page 5

NAZI WEDGE IN DEFENCES

Position Worse South Of Don SOVIET RESISTANCE LONDON, August 2. The situation of the Russians south of the Don has deteriorated still further as the Germans have forced a deep wedge into the defences in the area of Salsk, 100 miles south-east of Rostov. According to Teheran radio, the Russians have launched a counteioffensive along the Don front from Voronezh to Zymlyanskaya. Russian reports on the fighting do not use the term counter-offensive but Moscow radio states that Marshal Timoshenko is continuously attacking in the Don area. The character of the Russian resistance, at least in the not them sectors of the Don front, appears to be .becoming more than purely defensive. The Russian left wing is still falling back in some sectors, but German progress here has further slowed down. • The Russians to the south of Voronezh are reported to have crashed through a fortified line and established two more bridgeheads on the west bank of the Don River.

The German drive on the Don bend, south-west of Kletskaya, is not making headway. The Russians here are constantly counter-attacking, and at one point the Germans have been pushed back several miles. Elsewhere in the Kletskaya sector, the fortunes arc fluctuating in fighting which is hourly growing in intensity. Both sides are throwing in masses of tanks, artillery and infantry, and the skies are filled with contending planes. ‘•Red Star” reports that fighting in the Bataisk and Zymlyanskaya sectors is assuming ever larger proportions. To the south of Bataisk, the Germans are striving desperately to force the river barrier, but Cossacks are driving them back. While there is a general feeling, of Impending crisis in the great Russian conflict, there is also a growing appreciation in London that Marshal Timoshenko may have begun to stem the tide of misfortune. Though the German advance is continuing at heavy cost south of Bataisk, below Rostov, Russian resistance appears to be steadily stiffening on other fronts. Nazis Disappointed. LONDON, August 1. The Stockholm' correspondent of ‘■The Times” says that Marshal Timoshenko disappointed the German command first, by avoiding encirclement, and secondly by offering the main resistance to von Bock’s left instead of his right. The morning communique merely mentions fighting last night in the regions of Kletskaya, Zymlyanskaya and south and south-east of Bataisk. Seemingly, Marshal Timoshenko intends to defend Stalingrad to the utmost and has ample forces to do so. The Jloscow correspondent of the National Broadcasting Company of America says the turning point has been reached in. south Russia. There will be no further retreat. The Germans today made no further progress except a small advance south of Rostov. Savage battles were raging on. the Don front today aa Marshal Timoshenko hurled in strong reserves in an endeavour to smash the German drive on Stalingrad. A Moscow message says that both sides are throwing in all they have in the battle in the Don elbow, which is being fought with extraordinary fierceness. Attacks take place on from 10 to 15-mile fronts, and possession of each hillock, ravine and tiny village is fiercely contested. Positions change hands several times daily. The ferocity and scale of the fighting along the Don both' on land and .in the air has in no degree diminished, a later report states, and the casualties and destruction of equipment are on a commensurate scale. A German communique yesterday stated that German, Rumanian, and Slovak troops had crossed the lower reaches of the Don on a front of T5O miles and dispersed Russian forces defending this sector. The Russians were streaming back in disorderly flight, pursued by mobile units and the vanguards of infantry rifle divisions. “Advanced elements of our armies are already 115 miles south of the Don and fighting for Salsk is progressing,” said the Nazi communique. “Infantry divisions have taken Kushchevsk. German and Rumanian troops in the Don elbow threw the Russians across the river.” The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” said yesterday: “There is no significant change, on the Voronezh front. The intensity of the battle is unabated, and appears to have reached a deadlock which can be resolved only when one side receives telling reinforcements.” German Admission. The German radio for the first time yesterday mentioned “bitter German defensive actions” west of Stalingrad. Marshal Timoshenko’s strategy -is not yet clear, but seemingly the Germans wrongly believed he would make his strongest dispositions before Rostov and Stalingrad, for which reason they struck strongly toward Kletskaya and Zymlyanskaya, hoping to split the Russian armies and achieve devastating encirclements. In this they were disappointed. Kletskaya is approximately 80 miles north-west of .Stalingrad. Nobody attemps -to deny the seriousness of the German penetration south from Rostov, but Marshal Timoshenko’s strategy undoubtedly is puzzling the Germans, who are meeting stiffest resistance where they did not expect it—at Gletskaya, where the Russians appear to be holding their own after eight days of bitter fighting, and also ht Zymlysankaya, where a prolonged battle is still raging furiously. The battering-ram designed to smash through and round Rostov has not been strongly opposed. Berlin radio claims that a German motorized force captured the junction of the Rostov-Krasnodcr and Stalin-grad-Krasnoder railways and pushed on. to within 25 miles of the Kuban River. A German communique claims the capture of Salysk/100 miles south-east of Rostov, and says tha t large Russian forces arc encircled and face annihilation. In hard battles north of Rzhev repeated Russian attacks were frustrated. The Germans in the Kletskaya region are meeting with the strongest opposition encountered since the fighting in the lower Don began. The Russian Air Force yesterday subjected the Germans to mass bombing, frustrating a big pincer movement initiated by several infantry divisions and a tank division. In the Kletskaya area, the battles are of a mobile character, raging over 100 square miles. The Russians are still attempting to thrust the Germans back across the Don and the Germans arc trying to disrupt supplies and munitions to the acrlaL

attacks on Stalingrad. “Izvestia” states they have not been able to break through the defences to bomb the city and supplies from the city to the Russian armies arc still undiminished. Nazi Threat Below Kostov. The Germans are developing their offensive to the south-west of Rostov along the Gulf of Taganrog, and are widening the front based on ■ Bataisk. Two tank units, supported by German battalions, tried to breach the Russian defences on the coastline of the Gulf of Taganrog, but were repelled by Russian marines and coastal batteries. At Zymlyanskaya, Russian counterattacks supported by strong tank formations hare slowed down the German advance. The war correspondent of the Italian newspaper “Gazzetta del Popolo” reveals the completeness of the Russian preparations when it reports that the Germans found Bataisk completely deserted. The • whole population of 200,000 had apparently (been evacuated to the Caucasus, except for some who were hiding in the neighbouring countryside. Buildings collapsed mysteriously without audible explosion as the Germans entered. IN PRIPET MARSHES Russians Reported To Be Causing Losses (Received August 2, 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 1. The Stockholm newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” says that fighting is still going on in .the Pripet marshes, on the old Russian-Polish border, where the remnants of several'Russian. divisions are still holding out under two Russian generals. They are supplied by air and are causing the Germans great losses. The Russians are taking the initiative in the Leningrad sector, where the long nights have ended. Berlin radio claimed yesterday that the Germans .had dispersed Russian armies attemuting to cross the Neva River on the Leningrad front. MINISTER TO CANADA Russian Appointment (Received August 2,10 p.m.) OTTAWA, August 1. The. Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, announced in the House of Commons that JI. Fyodor Gusev, of the Soviet Foreign Office, had been appointed the first Russian Minister to Canada. The Canadian. Minister to Russia has not yet been appointed. NORWEGIAN ADMIRATION OF SOVIET STAND •(British Official Wireless.) (Received August 2, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, August 1. The Soviet Minister, JI. Bogomolov, has informed the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Mr. Lie, that the Soviet proposed to raise the Soviet Legation to the Norwegian Government and the Norwegian Legation in the Soviet Union to the rank of embassies. Expressing Norwegian appreciation, Jlr. Lio said the Norwegian people were following with admiration and confidence the heroic fight of the Soviet against the aggressors. ■