GERMANS REGROUPING

Evening Star, Issue 24288, 1 September 1942, Page 3

GERMANS REGROUPING

NEW DRIVE FOR STALINGRAD ENEMY HELD IN THE CAUCASUS (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Aug. 31. In Russia the German forces are regrouping for another assault on Stalingrad. In Berlin the official spokesman stated that the final assault on the city had begun. The last communique from Moscow states there is renewed violence in the battles round Stalingrad, especially in the north-west sector, where the Russians say tierce battles are raging. In one sector they have not only been successful in repelling an attack, but have advanced slightly. The Gerfnans have driven a wedge into the Russian lines in the north-west sector. Xu the central front the Russians have captured three important fortified places on the Kalinin sector. The Russians are pressing on slowly at Rjcv. In the Caucasus the Axis forces are no nearer the Black Sea ports, while the Russians are sternly defending the approaches to the Grozny oilfields. RUSSIANS’ LATEST BUN HEAVY DAMAGE INFLICTED FIERCE FIGHTING IN RJEV AREA (Ree. 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 31. Fierce fighting continues to rage in the Rjev area, where the Russian heavy artillery is battering the German positions from three sides. The Germans are attempting to bring up reinforcements. The British United Press Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians have cut the railway between Rjev audi Veliki' Yeluki. The Red Army’s newest heavy gun is hammering against the enemy’s defences in the Rjev area, and is also in action in other sectors of the Kalinin front. It is known to the Russians as “ Katyusha,” and abroad as Stalin’s secret weapon. “ Katyusha ’’ smashed powerful German fortifications at Pogoreloye and Gorodischs earlier in the month in 90 minutes, wiped out 60 per cent, of the Germans, and crushed strong points. Giving a description of Substov before the Russians reoccupied the town, a correspondent with General Zhukov’s forces says: “The inhabitants are dying of starvation, and living skeletons wandered about the streets, their skins stretched tight oyer fleshless bones. AH wore expressions of fear and spoke in whispers. Thousands of local inhabitants in the district have been driven into forced labour camps.” A German communique states that German troops southward from Stalingrad are piercing the enemy’s positions and wiping out considerable Russian forces. The Germans now stand 15 miles southward of the town. The Paris radio declared that the Germans widely breached the Russian defences north-west of Stalingrad. . The Tass Agency reports that desertions from the Finnish army are so widespread that the High Command ordered the police to arrest all whose papers cause “ even the slightest doubt.” The newspaper ‘ Hufvudstads Bladet ’ says that over 30,000 people were arrested in Helsinki this year. i RESISTANCE STIFFENS BITTER BATTLES RAGING STALINGRAD DEFIANT LQNDON, August 30. _ There have been no spectacular territorial changes in Russia during the past 72 hours, but mammoth battles of attrition rage with unabated fury in the Stallngrad-Kletskaya-Kotelnikovo _ triangle, and at Rjev, dwarfing the bitter conflicts at many other points on the 1,200-mile front between Leningrad and the Caucasus. No significant changes have taken place on the Stalingrad front during the past five days, and the rot has apparently been stopped _in the Caucasus, where the Russians, with their backs to the mountain wall, are holding off the Gormans from the Grozny oilfields and from the naval bases at Novorossisk and Tuapse. Russian reports state, however, that the Germans are bringing up considerable reinforcements on the Rjev, Stalingrad, and Caucasus fronts, an indication that Hitler still commands a great reserve pool of men and machines. The Moscow correspondent of ‘ The Times i 1 says Russian resistance has stiffened from Voronezh to the Caucasus. The Red Army appears to hold the initiative to the north of Voronezh, and continues to develop its successes west and north-west of Moscow and at Leningrad. It has also consolidated its slight gains on the Brynask and northwestern fronts. The Russian front falls into two halves, and the whole outcome of the campaign depends on the Russians’ ability to make the halves interdependent. DRAWING OFF NAZI PRESSURE. The German commanders at Rjev, Gjatsk, ami Vyazma arc exhorting their men to fight resolutely, so that General Wclirmacht will not need to transfer troops from the south, the correspondent adds. On the contrary, the Russians in those sectors have been told that they are fighting for Stalingrad and the Caucasus. The Russian coun-ter-offensive aims at doing what it was hoped the Allies would be doing by now' —drawing off German pressure from the south. The Red Army counter-of-fensive is progressing slowly because the terrain—unlike the southern tank country—requires the capture of each town to control the highways radiating from them; otherwise the attackers are handicapped by swamps and forests. ENEMY RESERVES. The Stockholm correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says that further Axis reserves are arriving before Stalingrad, where a supremo Axis attempt is impending. German spokesmen betray diminished confidence to a marked degree, one stating: “Only heavy artillery and mortars are able to shift the Russians from the formidable strongholds and underground bastions which engirdle Stalingrad like a smaller Maginot Line. It is impossible to think in miles, only yards, each of which costs material and lives. The Russian air resistance lias strikingly hardened.” • Persistent local activity continues around Lake Ilmen. The Russians’ operations from Leningrad continue. The Red Army broke into an unnamed town, and so far has beaten off nine counter-attacks. The Finns report that heavy Russian attacks were beaten off between Lakes Ladoga and Onega. BATTLE OF SUPPLIES. Reuter’s correspondent “ somewhere on the Volga ” describes “ the second battle of the Volga, which is going on only a few miles from the front— the

battle to keep open tho Volga supply line in defiance of the Luftwaffe.” Great tanker-barges loaded to the gunwales are fighting their way upstream, reinforced by everything that will float, including very small passenger steamers, ferries towing lighters, and rafts, some of which are 200 ft long and are composed of giant logs lashed, spiked, and chained together. They are steered by giant sweeps. Many women are manning vessels and rafts, with which the Russians are moving the greatest possible amount of oil and grain from the threatened regions. Oil workers at Baku are straining every nerve to increase the output while intense activity is proceeding on the steppes east of the Volga and north of tho Caspian, which is known as “ tho second Baku.” Many new wells have also begun to flow during the past few months at Buguruslan, which is east of Kuibyshev, and at Bashkir, north of Kazakhstan. The oil commissar, M. Sedin,' says that war needs can be met from the eastern regions provided ‘“the second Baku ” maintains its output.