RELATIVE LULL CONTINUES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 17, 15 October 1942, Page 5

RELATIVE LULL CONTINUES

Only Brief Flare Up At Stalingrad LONDON, November 14. Today’s communique from Moscow says that tank and infantry fighting is still on a small scale at Stalingrad, where artillery duels continue.

Moscow’s announcement yesterday of the temporary resumption of the attack on the city reported a’ small .Soviet withdrawal in one sector. Last night’s communique stated that the Russian troops have regained the lost position. The German attack is believed to have been fierce. Much infantry was used, and 20 enemy tanks were knocked out in one assault. Workmen Soldiers.

One of the main objectives of the new German onslaught appears to be the big iStalin tank and tractor factory which stands like a bastion in the north-west suburbs. Though this factory is constantly under shell fire, a correspondent reports that the men are feverishly employed in underground workshops repairing damaged tanks, with rifles propped against the benches and hand-grenades dangling from their belts.

“Pravda” reports that most of the equipment of the works has been transferred east of. the Volga, but sufficient has been retained to produce some tanks and to effect major tank repairs. Reports from Stalingrad mention an intensification of the German terror raids. Lengths of railway tracks, riddled with small holes, are being dropped from 5000 feet, producing prolonged and ear-splitting howling noises. The Luftwaffe is also using screech whistles and screaming bombs. The “Izvestia” says that Italian tanks have recentity been in action at Stalingrad. The Russians found that their armour was easily pierced.

THUNDEROUS FRONT Journalist Near Rzhev

CHICAGO, October 13.

In a copyright dispajch to the “Chicago Daily News” from the Rzhev front, Mr. Leland Stowe says: “At last I have been and lived with the Red Army in several sectors and have the feel of these Russian soldiers and officers who have amazed the world. In the last nine days Russia’s troops and Russia’s battle have become a vivid reality. “We rode long and hard and bounced high and .interminably to get to the Rzhev front. Those who rode boupced with me—llya Ehrenburg, the Soviet’s most famous war correspondent, Major Arapov, of the ‘Red Star,’ and Captain Emma. Twice Russian peasants gave us shelter, and, with their magnificent hospitality, even their humble beds for a night. For seven days in the front sectors we never saw a single male dressed in civilian clothes. Such villages as have not been completely burned are inhabited only by women and children. “The thunder of howitzers and mortars and the thud of bombs seldom cease for more than an hour or two, either day or night. Here, within sound of the rumble of artillery, there is also the peculiar calm of men who know how to command and how to fight. We see great orange fires burning night after night in the city of Rzhev, and the crackle of machineguns punctuates the crisp midnight air. Cannon fire, exploding mortars, and rockets trace a flickering pattern for miles along the front . . . “Captain Emma is chatting all the while. She doesn’t seem to pay any attention to the bombs. Soldiers working near the road take no notice, either. Like Captain Emma they have been living in this atmosphere for a long time.”

MUCH FOOD BEING SENT TO RUSSIA (British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, October 13.

Substantial quantities of food have been sent to the Soviet Union by tlie United Nations, said the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Butler, in tlie House of Commons. Under the agreement recently signed at Washington between Britain, the United States, and the Soviet further substantial quantities were to be made available to the Soviet. It would not be in the public interest to disclose details of the quantities and types of food products already sent or which it was proposed to send, he added.