TRIUMPH IN SOUTH STALINGRAD

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 29, 29 October 1942, Page 5

TRIUMPH IN SOUTH STALINGRAD

Axis Ousted From City

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received October 28, 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, October 27. Marshal Timoshenko's relief drives from north-west and from south of Stalingrad are at last apparently having an important effect on the general position. The Russians in the south have pushed back the German front line beyond the city’s boundaries, and simultaneously a strategic village has been captured near Stalingrad’s most northern suburbs. Thus both the German flanks have now been brought to the defensive.

Reports from Stockholm say that the German High Command, through the Red Cross, offered the Russians a four-day suspension of hostilities round Stalingrad to enable both sides to pick up their wounded and bury their dead. The Russians agreed, with the stipulation that the terms of the agreement should be published in Germany. The Germans refused, whereupon the negotiations were terminated. A practical stalemate prevails in the factory area. Major-General Rodinistev still directs resistance from cellar headquarters which are like a coalmine, with tree trunks buttressing the walls. That Stalingrad’s position is extremely tense is emphasized in the dispatches from Moscow, but references to the successful Russian counter-at-tacks iu the Stalingrad area and on the other active fronts are constantly coming in. Long Battle in South. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says the Russians, after a fortnight’s fighting, drove the Rumanians and Germans to the steppes beyond the ridge of hills which surrounds the southern approaches to Stalingrad. Moscow radio stated that the Russians have killed 4000 Rumanian and German troops and destroyed or seriously damaged .160 German ■tanks in the .past six days south of Stalingrad. ■ The Germans gained some ground in Stalingrad yesterday, but the Russians before dusk had reoccupied their original positions, except for one 300-yard stretch, which they were still struggling to recover. The Associated Press correspondent reports that the Luftwaffe continues to concentrate against the sectors which are holding out in the Stalingrad area. Inside the city, many factories are still working day and night. The “Izvestia” says some are repairing tanks and others are making iron stoves to warm dug-outs and supply soup to the troops. Tonight’s Soviet communique states that enemy attacks at Stalingrad were repulsed, and Russian counter-attacks were made in the southern- outskirts. It adds that north-east of Tuapse the Russians repelled enemy attacks, and east of Novorossisk the Russians launched attacks and improved their position.