NO PROGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 24332, 22 October 1942, Page 5

NO PROGRESS

ASSAULT ON STALINGRAD FRESH RUSSIAN TROOPS CROSS VOLGA (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Oct. 21. Tho Germans have made no progress at Stalingrad for more than two days. Kverv attack has been repulsed. Considerable Soviet forces have crossed the Volga and are battling with a big formation of German and Rumanian tanks and infantry in northern Stalingrad, states a report from Istanbul quoted by the Vichy radio. The Moscow radio says the Germans throughout the day threw iu fresh reserves against Stalingrad. They launched attack after attack, but all wore repulsed. According to the Berlin radio, tho Gormans occupied the whole of the Volga bank beyond a Stalingrad factory. first cutting off the garrison from supplies. Tho two Gorman columns attacking north and south of the road which leads over the pass to Tuapse have joined up. The Berlin radio said: Tho task of the German troops in the'Caucasus is to protect tile rich territories between the Don and Kuban Rivers, without which the Soviet Union will be unable to survive. The enemy is using many fresh troops. Wo face a formidable task. There is no question of storming forward and overrunning the enemy positions. We can only advance yard by yard through seemingly endless Soviet fortifications.

UNDIMINISHED VIOLENCE ISSUE IN THE BALANCE LONDON, October 2(J. The titanic battle for Stalingrad is in its sixtieth day, and the issue, is still in the balance, but the position, of the Russians is every day becoming more tense, says the Moscow correspondent of ‘ The Times.’ The break in the weather has limited air activity, but is not hampering the enemy’s ground forces. Strong tank forces are battering the northern industrial region with undiminished violence, and the defenders are clearly very hard pressed. Each fresh attack is preceded by two or three hours of concentrated bombing, accompanied hy a mortar and artillery barrage.

The Home radio claimed that the Germans captured the last bridge across the Volga to Northern Stalingrad. The Moscow correspondent of 1 The Times ’ says that, in addition to the gigantic battle on the banks of the Volga, which spreads many miles to the west and encircles Stalingrad in a large arc, no less a momentous battle is being fought out on the river itself. Stalingrad’s fate depends on the supply lines. The defenders require hundreds of tons of shells, bullets, and food every day. Every typo of craft has been mobilised for the battle of the Volga crossings. A motley flotilla is manned by naval cadets, pensioners, gardeners, fishermen, and women. They stick to their jobs and feed the battle’s insatiable maw with the greatest fortitude. It is the spirit with which one day all Russia hopes the people of Britain will mobilise her strength and courage to feed armies across the water.

CITY OF FIRES AND RUIN STALINGRAD'S TERRIBLE ORDEAL LONDON, October 20. Two pictures from different sources vividly describe the bell Stalingrad has become. The Aloscow radio says: “ Stalingrad quakes under incessant bombing from the air. Soviet fighter pilots continue to fight against numerically superior forces and with the utmost gallantry to prevent the enemy, from bombing Soviet troops.” The ißome radio, quoting an Italian special correspondent, says: “ The road leading to Stalingrad can be compared with a huge crater. The course of the battle is marked by an uninterrupted chain of cemeteries of machines and artillery. Flying over the area, one sees enbrmous masses of tanks destroyed in battle and by bombers, miles of columns of motor vehicles nailed down to the ground, and parts of light, medium, and heavy artillery all converted into a shapeless mass of iron. “ Stalingrad has become a permanent furnace. The sky over the city is dark because of dark clouds' and smoko reaching to G,sooft. The- heat from the furnace is felt several miles away, and even the rains of the last few days have not lowered the temperature or decreased the extent of the iires which the fighting continually alights anew.” There is evidence, says the Stockholm correspondent of 1 The 'Times,’ that the Germans are taking seriously the Russian concentrations on the Kalinin front, and there is brisk transport of Gorman reinforcements along the railways to Smolensk. The Russian preparations have the Germans guessing. The Russians may aim to pinch out the Vyazma-Rjev-Gjatsk, pocket, but the present concentration can he equally directed to the cast or to the northwest. The aim is to outflank the Germans before Leningrad.