GERMANS NEARER

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 282, 27 August 1942, Page 5

GERMANS NEARER

Stalingrad City At Bay CAN ATTACKERS BE WORN DOWN?

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received August 26, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 25. The battle for Stalingrad is growing in intensity. The German armoured forces and infantry, with formidable air support, pushed one steel spearhead after another from the Don toward Stalingrad yesterday afternoon and last night. The Germans regrouped immediately they had crossed the Don elbow in the central sector, and then swept on against the’first Russian defence line. The enemy are also pressing the attacks from the northeast of Kotelnikovo, where another fierce battle is in progress. It is from this direction that the Germans claim to have penetrated 12 miles. The Russians have not yet admitted such a wedge, but they state that a German force hereabouts is being persistently attacked from the flanks. It is clear that the major German stabs from the north-west, west, and -south-west have not been halted, though they have been somewhat slowed up in the centre, where German tanks and troops are still pouring across the Don. * 1.-, n-lmii +hn A rmV

The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that FieldMarshal von Bock, seeking to counter the heavy resistance and hasten the smashing of the Russian defences round Stalingrad, has landed large forces of paratroops behind the Russian positions. The paratroops, in groups of upward of 100, have dropped round railways and road junctions 12 to 20 miles to the rear, and the (Russians are engaging them strongly. Junkers 52’s are continuously carrying tiiese paratroops and also motor-cycles, tanks, anti-tank guns and mortars, with, which to reinforce their 'tommyguns and grenades. German heavy bombers launched the first intensive mass .attack -against Stalingrad today. Russian fighters attacked and the ack-acks put up a terrific resistance, tout it is feared the civilian population has suffered heavily. The raiders aimed principally for the central railway station, the shipping on the Volga, and armament factories. Entrenched Camp.

Dispatches from all sources agree that Stalingrad, is an entrenched camp. The inhabitants are not evacuating, bu t are facing up to the enemy undeterred by the air raids. The stevedores are working day and night servicing the Volga ships, the factories are feverishly turning out weapons, and the defenders are hourly increasing the antitank traps and strengthening the strong points. Citizens are being mobilized to dig trenches and. construct other defences round the city. Factories are being moved to the east bank of the Volga. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Express” reports that the crack Guards division which won honour before Moscow under General Zhukov last winter, is now in Stalingrad’s front line. It is agreed 1 that Stalingrad will fight back as grimly as Leningrad and Moscow 7 , though handicapped with the lack of ground tor manoeuvring and possibly with lack of communications. Field-Marshal von Bock is reported to be smashing against Stalingrad with 58 divisions. His weakness is the Army’s exhaustion; he has been fighting without a halt for three months, and has traversed nearly 500 miles. The Kletskaya hills and the Kotelnikovo steppes have cost him 20,000 to 50,000 men, probably 1000 tanks, and perhaps as many planes. The question is, will the exhaustion evidence itself as before Mos-

cow last November, when the Red Army struck back? Huge Russian tank reserves have been thrown in against the German forces" advancing on Stalingrad, and terrific tank battles are being fought out beneath a blazing sun, says the Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” In spite of the desperate Russian resistance, German panzers have reached within 30 miles of the city in the northwest and 50 miles in the south-west. Neither side is counting the cost, and the battlefields are scenes of dreadful carnage. With the German pincers reaching toward Stalingrad comes news of a third threat against the city. According to Vichy radio, the Germans have launched a frontal attack from the extreme point of the Don bend on both sides of Kalach. German tanks, guns, and infantry are still pouring across the Don by means of bridges, boats and rafts.

The German High Command tonight claimed that a shock force of tanks from the south-west had penetrated 12 miles toward Stalingrad after bitter fighting.

Stronger Caucasus Defence.

It is considered in London- that the resistance is stiffening in the Caucasus. “Pravda” reports that the Germans have begun landing a large number of parachutists behind the Russian lines on the Caucasus front. Groups of a hundred, armed with tommyguns, machineguns and mine-throwers, are appearing in the path of the retreating Russian units.

Other Moscow sources report stubborn battles in many places south of Krasnodar, -where, according to the “Red (Star,” the Situation is steadily becoming worse. Large German forces have been thrown into the fighting for Prokhladnaya, where the Russians vigorously counter-attacked, but the position is grave, as the Russians are heavily outnumbered. A German communique says that Rumanian formations captured Temryuk, near the Kerch Strait.

FINNISH CAPITAL BOMBED LONDON, August 25. s Helsinki is reported to have been raided last night by Russian planes. A Finnish communique says that many (buildings were damaged.