STOUT DEFENCE OF DON

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 263, 5 August 1942, Page 5

STOUT DEFENCE OF DON

Many Enemy Attempts Fail CONTINUED CARNAGE LONDON, August 3. Again Field-Marshal von Bock has thrown fresh forces into the Don battle, says a Moscow dispatch. The Russians are furiously resisting new onslaughts. Tanks and. infantry are crowding to the river like ants. The Germans path is littered with smashed and twisted heaps of metal and mangled bodies of men. After suffering heavy aerial and artillery punishment, the Germans changed their tactics and are new attempting to get troops across the Don in small numbers at numerous places. Russian bombs and guns are daily wrecking pontoons and sinking boats. Many enemy attempts to cross at Zymlyanskaya were frustrated, yesterday and during the moonlit night The Moscow representative of the “Daily Express” reports that the Germans have been held up at Zymlyanskaya for 12 days. Each: night they have thrown more pontoons and tank and tommygun columns across the Pon and have established formidable birdgeheads along a wide stretch, but they are still unable to cross sufficient armour to enable them to press on eastward. Without a natural defence line, with their backs to the plain and railway and blitzed by plane, tank and mortar, the Russians are still' holding on. Both sides are digging in in the Voronezh area. A Russian communique states: — “While the Luftwaffe heavily bombed our positions in the Eletskaya area, the Germans launched tank and infantry attacks in several sectors,. but we threw the enemy back to his initial positions. We continued severe defensive battles in the Kusehevska and Salsk areas.” Southward Drive. The Germans today claim a further advance in the north Caucasus and the capture of a big dam on the i River Manich. Vichy radio reported that the Germans were in the outskirts of Kavkazskaya, and added that the main shock of the battle between the Russian and German armies could 'be expected within a few days. Berlin radio eaid that the Germans south of Lake Manich fought their way through to Bassanta, on the Yegorllk River, while Baris radio announced that German advance guards reached Yeisk, on the Sea of Azov. A German communique states: “The panzer army pursuing the Russians is approaching the upper course of the Kuban River. Russian rearguards north-west of this area were thrown back from the Yeya sector. The Germans and Rumanians between the Sal and the Don Rivers are driving the Russians eastward.” Moscow reported tonight that Soviet planes over the Sea of Azov torpedoed a 15,000-ton transport. German concentrations on land were battered, and dive J bombers raided an enemy naval base. Thrusts by Russians. The Swiss radio stated that the Russians had bypassed Voronezh and now were menacing another important railway junction further to the west. Voronezh was said to be behind the main fighting zone. The German communique reported continued attacks by strong Russian’; forces north of Rzhev and on the Volk-) hov and Leningrad fronts, but said 1 ' that these failed. The High Command spokesman said the Russians made local breaks through in central and northern Russia. The Germans stemmed the attacks, and in counterattacks re-established the position. The spokesman admitted that the Russian attacks-in the Voronezh area had put an extremely heavy strain on the German forces, which were on the defensive there. GERMAN AGENTS LONDON, August 3. A. Moscow message says the fifth columnists and spies who, it was reported yesterday, have been rounded up in the Don region were Russianspeaking Germans dropped by parachute behind the Russian lines. Fiftyone were executed. TURKISH FRONTIER (Received August 4, 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, August 4. The Istanbul correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says that moderate-sized Turkish reinforcements have gone to the Soviet border (on the southwestern Caucasus).