BITTER FIGHTING

Evening Star, Issue 24286, 29 August 1942, Page 5

BITTER FIGHTING

Axis Stalingrad Assault Checked

Russian Successes In Rjev Area

Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright

(Received noon.) LONDON, August 28. The Germans have made no headway on thp Stalingrad front during the past 24 hours, and the Russians have made further advances in the central sector. The latest reports of the ground fighting in the Stalingrad area speak of very bitter fighting in the vicinity of an important military objective. A huge group of enemy tanks and infantry broke through, but a Soviet unit counterattacked, permitting Soviet tanks and artillery to ax-rive on the scene and destroy 60 enemy tanks in the first engagement. The second engagement started with the Russians cutting off the enemy wedge from the south, and the Germans, deprived of reinforcements and supply lines, hastily turned to the defensive. The Red Army increased its pressure, seeking to wipe out the. entire group. The battle continues. , Trying to wrest the initiative from the Russians, the Germans threw in cavalry in the Kletskaya battle for the first time in the fighting on the southern front, but the horsemen refused to face the Russian tanks, and fled as the iron monsters advanced. The Red Army is pressing hard upon the enemy at many points in this area. The • Bed Star ’ states that the improved weather was making conditions favourable to large-scale tank and air operation!. .German resistance is stubborn, reserves from other sectors having been brought in. General Leluishenko continues ,to grind the German defences in the suburbs of Rjev and is storming the positions, street by street and house by house. Fighting is raging in several areas round Rjev as the Germans dislodged from Zubksov try to hold new positions with support from masses of artillery and many planes.