DON ELBOW AREA

Evening Star, Issue 24280, 22 August 1942, Page 5

DON ELBOW AREA

GERMAN OCCUPATION INEVITABLE ENEMY USING HEAVY SIEGE GUNS LONDON, August 21. . Despatches from Moscow do not indicate that the enemy has yet crossed the Don River in sufficient strength to suggest that a frontal attack is immediately imminent. Some of the units which crossed the river south-east of Kletskaya had in fact been thrown back. South-west of Stalingrad; the Russians are fighting defensive battles, and in several places have counter-attacked, .inflicting heavy losses. Some reports suggest that these counter-attacks are having the effect of ‘exhausting the enemy. In the south the Russians have withdrawn south of Krasnodar, and are only 50 miles from the Black Sea port of Tuapse., On this front the enemy has great numerical superiority. Further to the cast the German advance towards Grozny, the second most important oilfield in the Caucasus, is making slower progress. Leningrad has now withstood the Germans for 12 mouths, and on the anniversary of the day on which the siege began the Russians captured an important position and drove the enemy back. The Germans claim that they are across the Don and pressing on across country leading to Stalingrad, between the Don and the Volga. _ The Russians admit that the position is most critical. The Germans apparently used heavy guns of the type employed, to batter down the Sebastopol defences. This armament helped to widen the wedges driven towards the river and also helped the enemy to consolidate their riverside positions before attempting to establish bridgeheads that could be used. German occupation of the whole area within the Don elbow to the west of the river is believed to be inevitable in spite of the Russians’ spirited fight. The Germans on the lower Kuban are stated to be preparing for assaults against Novorossisk. Their columns cutting towards the Caspian have been slowed up appreciably', although they have not been .checked. North-east of Kotelnikovo Marshal Timoshenko’s men are adopting what is locally called aggressive defence. This means that the Russians are frequently sallying out from their own positions in sorties designed to anticipate and disrupt the German moves. Kotelnikovo is a terrible scene of desolation. The wheatfields are oil-splashed and bloodstained, and there is a sordid litter of mechanised warfare throughout the fields, including smashed tanks, lorries, and trucks.

MAN-MADE DIFFICULTIES

AUSTRALIA'S FOOD POSITION CANBERRA, Aug. 21. Charging the Government with falling down on, its obligations to supply food to Britain, Mr H. L. Anthony, M.P., a former Assistant Minister of Commerce, states it had also allowed the dairying, pig, and poultry industries to drift into perilous positions. “ The Government’s lack of policy regarding our export food industries is not only threatening to kill our export trade in foods,” he said, “ but is also hampering Britain’s war effort. Britain is in need of fats such as those contained in butter, and she is urgently appealing for them, and for powdered eggs, pig meats, and other foods. • Our Ministers say in effect that we will not have a food shortage here because deficiences can be made up by letting Britain go short. Thousands of tons of food prepared for export to Britain have already been converted for local use. Australians use 10_oz of butter a week, while Britain’s ration is 4oz. If supplies are not maintained Britain’s ration must be cut even lower.’’ Mr Anthony said it would be impossible for Britain to fight on a second front without adequate food. Last year serious drought had caused Australia’s butter output to fall well below the quantity promised to Britain. The drought was unavoidable, but manmade difficulties must not cause Australia to dishonour her obligations to Britain.