FIGHTING RETREAT

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

FIGHTING RETREAT

Heavy Cost Of German Advance (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 31. Though it is realized in London that the continued German advance toward the Caucasus Moiintaius weakens the Russian organization by cutting across one line of communication, Press comment expresses confidence that the Russians have not yet faced the decisive hour. The next few days or weeks may win the decision, the “Daily Telegraph” states. It is not yet possible to estimate liow much loss Jlarshal Timoshenko’s fighting retreat has inflicted on the enemy, but the cost of the German advance certainly has not been low. The “Daily Telegraph” also states that new types of American aircraft are now being used on the Don and urges that! the greatest possible supplies should be sent to Russia. The “Daily Mail” points out that Marshal Timoshenko’s tactics are very similar to those employed in Russia last year. He has been retreating all the time while inflicting the utmost damage on the enemy by large-scale rearguard actions. In the southern battles, the phase of strategic retreat and delaying rearguard actions has ended, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The Soviet High Command lias decided that the time has come for a general stand. A war of rapid manoeuvre is raging with daily increasing ferocity throughout the Lower Don region. Russian tanks and cavalry, first in one place and then in another, are breaking into the Germans’ rear, cutting communications, encircling small groups, and annihilating them. A Russian, rifle battalion decimated a German tank division and smashed up a regiment of artillery in a battle for a bridgehead on the southern Don. The Russians took advantage of the confusion, following an air attack on the German bridgehead, crossed the river on a pontoon bridge that the Germans had erected and pounced on the enemy. , . Luftwaffe Activity. The Germans, with ever-renewed forces, are launching attack after attack in all sectors. The Luftwaffe doing its utmost to break the Russian communications across the Don and in the region westward of Stalingrad. According to Lyons radio, street fighting is going on in the town of Azov. This is the only information regarding the region south-west of Rostov since the fall of the city. The Bed Star admits that the situation in the Bataisk region remains grave. It is reported from Moscow that the Russians are persistently attacking on a sector of the Bryansk front where the Germans are on the defensive and are trying to hold fortified positions. The Russians have captured villages which the Germans had linked up mto an organized centre of resistance. Ihe Russians stress that the Bryansk operations are only of local significance, but that they took a series of positions. -the pressure in this area is containing German forces which otherwise would be available for Voronezh or the more southward areas. The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that Red Army armoured trains rolled into the Don stcppeland, bringing fi'csii fighters, who were rushed into battle immediately. ■ “Izvestia” re-echoes Stalins win or die” order. Stalin’s voice is in all these rallying cries. He is certainly taking an active part in organizing the struggle to save Stalingrad and the J qlga-Caucasus region. Every day gained improves the chance of getting in the harvest. Immense numbers of city people are hclpin o on the collective farms, but transport is difficult even when the grain is reaped.