TANKS OVER DON

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 280, 25 August 1942, Page 5

TANKS OVER DON

(By Telegraph,—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, August 24. The battle for the approaches to Stalingrad continued throughout the weekend with unabated fury, and the manner in which the Germans pressed the attack and also the stubborn nature of the Russian counter-attacks confirm the opinion of observers that each side regards the battle for Stalingrad as the most vital factor in this year’s campaign on the Eastern Front. The Stockholm correspondent of ‘The Times says: There is no question of any sudden Russian collapse before Stalingrad. It is now a fight to exhaustion, and the huge total of force® engaged on both sides suggests that the battle will continue for weeks even at the present intensity. Estimates of the Axis troops engaged vary between 500,000 and 1,000,000.

The Germans, it is reported, have crossed the Don in force 40 miles north-west of Stalingrad, and the Russians are making a tremendous effort to destroy the bridgehead.

The Germans at the weekend made further territorial progress in the western Caucasus, while the fighting along the Caucasus range toward the Caspian Sea is reported to be going on in valleys and gorges among the foothills. Russian alpine-trained troops occupy strong defensive positions inmany places, and the Germans have already fallen into some carefullyprepared traps in the Pyatigorsk sector, but the Russians are still withdrawing. Crisis Along Don. A supplement to the routine Soviet night communique said that the Russians improved -their positions in the Kletskaya area. Guards ousted the Germans from several points and destroyed 14 tanks, and also shot down four planes with machinegun fire. South-east of Kletskaya fighting continued for crossings of the Don. The enemy in one sector effected a crossing with troops and tanks, and Soviet troops were engaged in a fierce struggle with this enemy group. In another sector of- the same front an Italian division was attacked and destroyed. In the area north-east of Kotelnikovo large enemy forces of infantry and tanks were encountered, and in some sectors the Germans broke through at large cost, the communique added. Reporting that Stalingrad’s defenders in the upper part of the Don bend have driven the enemy from a number of points and heights, the Moscow 7 correspondent of “The Times” says that this has slightly relieved the Russian position on the most dangerous sector. The Germans here control a stretch of the river’s right bank broad enough for several simultaneous crossing attempts. Russian reports indicate that the Germans who are across the Don are getting no freedom of manoeuvre, but they admit a critical situation calling for the utmost vigilence along the waterline.

Huge Air Onslaught. Von Bock’s southern prong, pushing toward Stalingrad north-east of Kotelnikovo, is reported to possess a heavier weight of tanks and men than at any other time since the offensive was intensified on. August 5. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that 3000 planes are Masting a way for the German panzers converging on Stalingrad from the northwest and south-west. The Russians who are counter-attacking on the east bank of the Don are handicapped by the enemy’s superiority in tanks and planes. A dispatch yesterday said that in the Kotelnikova sector the Russians were attacking the two sides of the wedge which the Germans forced through the minefields into the defences. The Germans were making a huge effort and were pouring reinforcements into the wedge, where their tanks and motorized infantry were threatening the whole Russian position. Describing the fighting here, a Moscow message says that the weather is very hot and the rivulets and lakes, are dried up and drinking water is precious. Bursting shells and the heat are firing the steppe brush, allowing the Germans *to strike behind a screen of fire smoke. Braving the hazards, and using water only to revive those who collapse, the Russians are repulsing attack after attack. “Pravda,” describing these battles, says that only the red sun reminded the troops that it was daytime. The Red Array suffered torture, but firmly held its line. Tongues of flame began to lick the trenches, and behind the screen of smoke and fire surged enemy tanks and tommygunners. On orders from their commanders, the Red Army men rose from the bottom of their trenches and fired, the steppe being strewn with German corpses. Push from Orel Fails. The fighting round Orel (150 miles north-west of Voronezh, and the scene according to enemy reports on August 22, of a new German offensive), is now favourable to the Russians, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent. The enemy’s armoured fist was found lacking in strength when the Russians counter-at-tacked persistently. Hungarians have suffered heavily here, and also on the Voronezh front,'where the Russians are bolding on to the positions they have won from the Hungarians in the past fortnight. The German High Command yesterday announced that German troops have taken up the offensive south-west of Kaluga (100 miles south-west of Moscow), where thev succeeded in driving a large wedge into strongly-fortified Russian positions. Russian counter-attacks on a broad front were repelled. Russian thrusts in the Rzhev, Dake Tlmen, and Leningrad areas were repulsed.