RUSSIANS HOLD NEW ATTACKS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 22, 21 October 1942, Page 5

RUSSIANS HOLD NEW ATTACKS

Stalingrad Crisis SIX TERRIBLE DAYS

War’s Biggest Blitz LONDON, October 20.

The Germans are continuing to fling in wave after wave of infantry and tanks in the northern factory belt in an attempt to exploit their earlier gains. 'All day yesterday and all last night battles raged in the streets and houses, but the Russians held their ground. A Soviet communique says that all the attacks were repelled with the loss of many enemy troops and a number of tanks. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, October 19.

The renewed German assault against north Stalingrad is now in its sixth day. In that period the Russians have suffered what the Moscow correspondent of “The Times” describes as the most merciless and persistent air bombing the war has known. The Luftwaffe, without interruption, is attacking on a narrow sector, using 500 planes of all types, and is making at least 1000 sorties daily, and sometimes 1600. [A later report quotes a Berlin announcement that adverse weather has hindered the continued air attack.] Defence Rallies.

The Russian resistance in the Red Barricade settlement is stiffening, reports the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” There is not the slightest confirmation of the claim by the German High Command that the whole factory area has been taken. The Russian troops are resisting fiercely in the 'Spartakova district in the northern part of the city, and they recaptured the Dzherzhinsky tractor works, in spite of the fact that their lines of communication to the south are cut and stukas are blocking the retreat to the Volga. These units, at great sacrifice, are holding up large forces which could otherwise be thrown against the Russiai» positions in the centre of the city. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Germans, in capturing one block of buildings in 'Stalingrad, lost 46 tanks and about 5009 men killed in 24 hours. Russians Massing. Reports from Berlin say that the Russians are massing for a renewed drive between, the Don and the Volga north-west of Stalingrad, and that Russian troops, tanks, and artillery are continually moving up. The Berlin International News Bureau, dwelling on the deterioration in the weather on the Russian front, said: “Cold rain has swept over Stalingrad, and wintry conditions on the central front are preventing largescale movements. A total of 2583 trains carrying winter equipment, including skis, have arrived in Russia for the German army.” Berlin is continually emphasizing the major dimensions of Russian movements in the area of Toropets (100 miles north-west of Rzhev, on the Moscow front). • The Luftwaffe for a fortnight has maintained all-day and all-night attacks against Russian deployments of troops in the whole region between Toropets and Kalinin, where a largescale Russian offensive is expected. A Stockholm report states that the German offensive continues in the Leningrad area, with heavy losses, notably of Italian-built planes piloted by Finns, According to the Moscow radio, Finland has lost 300,000 men in the Russian war. It added that the Finns asserted that they were fighting their own war, but they continue fighting with the Germans on the banks of the Don and in the Caucasus.