TAKING BREATH AT STALINGRAD

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 15, 13 October 1942, Page 5

TAKING BREATH AT STALINGRAD

Nazis Forced To Wait For New Reserves

SEE-SAW IN CAUCASUS

LONDON, October 12.

Ort the fiftieth day of the battle for Stalingrad yesterday, the Germans had been fought to at least a temporary standstill. The enemy have made no major attack during a lull which has lasted now for 36 hours.

Fighting has been confined mainly to artillery duels, but this morning’s Soviet communique says that two German battalions attacked in a factory settlement and were beaten off. In another area Soviet Guards broke up an enemy infantry concentration. North-west of the city a Soviet unit wrested favourable positions from the enemy. A German report says that the struggle is settling down to trench warfare. Messages from Moscow, however, continue to emphasize that during this lull the Germans are regrouping and bringing up reinforcements from far in the rear for another all-out assault.

In the Caucasus the Russians have recaptured positions near Mosdok which they had lost yesterday. Southeast of Novorossisk they have surrounded and taken heavy toll of a German garrison. The Russians’ drive north-west of Stalingrad continues to make progress, and, according to the German official news agency yesterday, there is evidence that they are preparing an offensive at other points. The agency says that these are, first, south of Stalingrad; secondly, the Voronezh area; and thirdly, the region north and east of Smolensk.

The enemy yesterday was still trying to recover his lost positions southeast of Leningrad, and heavy lighting continued. Moscow announced that Russian ships in the Baltic Sea sank five enemy transports, totalling 16,000 tons. A total of 123 German planes were destroyed in the past week for the loss of 78 Russian planes.