SUBSTANTIAL GAIN BY GERMANS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 20, 19 October 1942, Page 5

SUBSTANTIAL GAIN BY GERMANS

Stalingrad’s Peril

SYSTEMATIC BLITZING OF RUSSIAN LINES

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Received October 18, 7 p.m.) LONDON, October .1 7. Stalingrad’s position is more critical than at any other time since September, and the Russian relieving army shows no signs of really breaking through. The city’s garrison has withdrawn four times within 48 hours.

The Germans at dawn last Wednesday, started a systematic blitzing of the Russian lines and factory area with groups of 30 or 40 planes, which had completed 1500 sorties by 5 p.m. on a mile-wide front. Huge German forces launched attack after attack against northern Stalingrad. The Germans forced the Russians from one of the workers’ settlements, and they tried to penetrate northward and southward from their new positions, but the Russians held these attacks.

German planes and infantry then combined in a ceaseless 72-hour assault against a workers’ settlement before the Russians fell back. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent describes the captured suburb as part of the industrial district which stretches for miles along the bank of the Volga. The Germans launched 25 successive attacks, sometimes using an entire division, supported by 100 tanks. The final assault was made with two regiments of infantry plus 70 tanks. The Russians set 40 tanks ablaze before they withdrew. A front-line dispatch to the Moscow “Izvestia” 1 says that the Germans in north-western Stalingrad appear to be using forces at least equal to the previous offensive, when, four infantry divisions and one tank division, assaiilted the city. The. German radio says that German tanks and infantry have penetrated into the Red Barricade factory and captured half of the Red October factory. It adds that mopping-up continues in the Spartakova workers’ settlement, which was captured yesterThe “Daily Telegraph's” Stockholm correspondent says: “Hitler must take Stalingrad within, three weeks or not at all. Sleet storms qnd icy winds are already sweeping the steppes between the Don and the Volga, and supplies are becoming more and more a problem for the German High Command. German General Killed.

-Berlin sources state that LieutenantGeneral von Kotze has been killed on the Russian front. ' . The German High Command, in a communique, states that German and Slovak troops in the west Caucasus, in spite of fierce resistance, have gained considerable ground. Rumanians with strong air support dislodged the Russians from several mountain positions and took many prisoners. The German news agency says that German and Slovak troops have captured the town of Shaumyan, 18 miles from Tuapse, on thj/ Maikop-Tuapse road and railway. Moscow radio claims that 13 Humanian divisions totalling more than 200,000 men were killed during the summer on the Russian front. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that the Rumanian chief, General Antonescu, is expected to visit Herr Hitler’s headQuarters at the end of this . month, when the Fuehrer will appoint him commander-in-chief of one section of the southern front. Forty Rumanian divisions, totalling 750,000 men, are fighting in Russia. NEW R.A.F. UNITS IN ARCTIC z . LONDON, October 15. The (Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says that long-range reconnaissance .planes, flown 'by British pilots, are now operating in the Soviet far north alongside Russian flyers, patrolling for hostile submarines and protecting convoys.

TACTICAL ADVANTAGE Nazi Gains In North-west Stalingrad ' LONDON,'October 18.

Throughout the night Stalingrad was mercilessly bombed by the Luftwaffe, but today’s Moscow communique says that all the positions were held. In one sector six enemy thrusts were repelled. ■The 'Germans are now trying to pulverize the defence as a preliminary to a new onslaught. •Possession of the workers’ district in north-west Stalingrad gives the Germans a tactical advantage as it brings the bank of the Volga under their fire, endangering Russian supplies. The Germans themselves, however, are now under fire from the Russian Volga fleet. ■ North-west of the city Marshal Timoshenko’s relieving force continues to drive wedges into the enemy flank. In the Caucasus, the Germans are still held up in their push toward the Grozny oilfields. The Russians are more, than holding their own and have not only beaten off German attacks, but taken several fortified positions. There are crack German troops in this area, including IS.-S. and Viking units. ” In the Leningrad sector, the fighting is still local, but fierce.