DEFENCES IMPROVED

Evening Star, Issue 24324, 13 October 1942, Page 3

DEFENCES IMPROVED

INITIATIVE WRESTED FROM AXIS SALLIES AGAINST ENEMY COLUMNS (Rec. 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 12. The Russians in the Caucasus have generally wrested the initiative from the Germans. They are holding up all the German thrusts against the approaches to the Grozny oilfields. The Russians- are not only sallying out against German columps, but are improving their defences in case the reinforced enemy manages to break through any sector. The Russians’, other fronts continue to decimate the German ranks. Persistent fighting continues at Sinyavino, south-east of Leningrad, where the Russians are concentrating their grip on recently-won positions. On numerous sectors on the Kalinin front, northwest of Moscow, they are fighting locally important engagements. The Germans at one place drove back the Hussians, hut lost their gains before night, losing 600 killed. The Moscow radio declared that the Russians captured an important height in ■ a Karelian forest on the Finnish front, and killed 1,500 of the enemy. A German communique states: “ The Germans annihilated a Russian unit encircled on the road to Tuapse, and also smashed the_ bulk of the Russian Guards’ Division and part of the Rifle Division after hard mountain fighting.” According to the Vichy radio the Germans are continuing the , drive to Tuapse, and have mopped up most areas of resistance. Reconnaissance units are already in action on the road leading to the Black Sea. ■ Some London commentators say the Russian military situation is more hopeful now than at any time since Germany began her summer offensive. Mr Morley Richards, the ‘ Daily Express ’ military writer, declares that there. is indisputable evidence that the German army around Stalingrad is reaching exhaustion. Reduced in number*, the Germans have been fought to a standstill. Von Hoth may try again to capture the city, but the Red Army is supremely confident. The ‘ Dally Telegraph ’ says the lull in the German infantry attacks against Stalingrad is the best news we have had for some time. The Germans are feeling deeply their losses in front-line troops. Tne ‘News-Chronicle’ says; “There is no tendency to underrate the enemy’s remarkable striking power, but at last it really looks as if the large German thrust has been so blunted that it may never be able to deliver a fatal blow. Captain Liddell Hart, writing in the ‘ Daily Mail,’ says their most recent setback may cost the Germans the chance of conquering the Caucasus and establishing themselves on the Caspian. He suggests that the smallness of the numbers of tanks which the' Germans are using in the Caucasus shows that the enemy is increasingly handicapped by the wastage of tanks and trained crews, or that the German command has fallen back on the old habit of employing tanks in driblets instead of in massed drives. The Moscow radio says the People’s

Commissariat for the tank industry announced that more tanks were produced in the first 10 days of October than in the corresponding period in past months. The fighting quality of the latest model of the super-heavy Voroshilov tank has been considerably increased as the result of the adoption of a number of suggestions from Hied Army tank men.