NO SLACKENING

Evening Star, Issue 24334, 24 October 1942, Page 5

NO SLACKENING

ASSAULT ON STALINGRAD FIERCE FIGHTING INSIDE CITY (British Official Wireless.) (Eec. 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, October 23. There is little, if any, slackening in the scalA and weight of the fighting in the Stalingrad area, according to a Soviet supplementary communique and the latest Moscow messages. Enemy infantry and tank tactics are being ref ulsed by machine-gun and mortar fire, aside the city the Germans are building,up strongholds on a circular plan. Often they find it necessary to gain some particular building to complete contact between groups. The fiercest fighting centres round these premises, which may change hands several tunes. The Germans give their fortified points every protection possible, so that in places the Russians, when they attack, are compelled to concentrate considerable fire and forces against every house they storm. Nevertheless the Russians recovered several blocks of houses in the western suburbs two days ago. ' * Red ’ says where a deadlock is reached in the fighting inside Stalingrad the Germans are seeking new methods of street fighting, in which batteries are broken up and single tanks accompany tommy-gunners and infantry in the charge. Light guns are mounted on roof tops. Tanks are very vulnerable in street fighting, and therefore are used with extreme caution, often merely as hideouts for small groups of tommy-gunners. ‘ Bed Star ’ adds that 22 German divisions are concentrated against Stalingrad, including 15 infantry, three motorised infantry, and four tank divisions, possessing in all over 500 tanks, 1,200 field guns, 1,000 trench mortars, and 800 aircraft. North-westward of the city the Russians' on the Germans’ loft flank dislodged the enemy from an important height. ’ Rumanian troops freshly thrown into the battle hero suffered severe casualties. An enemy group which, as reported in yesterday’s communique, had, driven a wedge in the Soviet positions in the Mosdok area, was mopped up and the position restored. • Moscow radio reports activity by the Baltic Sea air arm, which attacked enemy naval units and damaged a torpedo boat and a cutter. Another group of aircraft silenced eight enemy gun batteries, six mortar batteries, and destroyed an anti-aircraft installation, railway trucks, and station buildings in several places.

THE WEATHER FACTOR lEßililS PROBLEM FOR GERMANS . LONDON, October 22. ■ The weather continues to set a problem for the Germans along the southern, Russian front. The Stalingrad streets' have become quagmires, slowing up the enemy’s attacks, and in addition he is, hard put to find shelter , for the troops because there are no {large inhabited localities near the city for billets. Cold, driving rain con- , tinuei in , Stalitagrad, and ' some snow fell on the steppeland north-west ofthe city. . The : Moscow correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says the Germans are continuing their attacks on the -north suburbs without gaining ground. Stalingtad’s ■ situationnis still critical, but it is;; now clear that the latest, German . offensive has lost its original momentum and the enemy have lost a chance of developing their initial success while'the Russians were off their balance. The Russian guns have been more:than a match for the German tanks approaching the disputed factory from the north-west. Moscow messages say that the weather is playing a vital part in the Caucasus, where the enemy is making an effort to bustle across the mountain passes to the south before the snow piles ' high enough to halt all movement. The German tank assaults have already diminished appreciably. The ‘ Red Star ’ newspaper considers that the Germans are husbanding their ' he#vv tanks, hoping to throw them in at the decisive moment for a breakthrough. The paper adds that the enemy in the past 10 days have lost 4,000 in bitter fighting for a mountain road. The German High Command, in a statement, said’ that the Caucasus operations during the past few days have been confined to solving tlie transport problem, which the'Hermans have done by columns of porters. An American radio commentator, in a broadcast from Moscow, declared that “ the Caucasus are bleeding the invader white.” SOVIET PRESIDENT , CONFIDENT OF VICTORY U ■ I .(Rec, 11.35 a.m.) MOSCOW, Oct. 23. Confidence in Russia’s ability to defeat Germany , was expressed by M. Kalinin, president of the Soviet Supreme Council, in a broadcast to young Russian farm workers. He said the Russian losses 'were not small, but the Germans were losing considerably more. He praised the efforts of industry, the result of which was that the Russian army was betted equipped than at the outbreak. Russia was producing so many guns that the losses were being made up and reserves built up. Russia’s difficult task was in the realm of agriculture. As the result of the Germans’ seizure of the Ukraine and Eubcn, a heavy agricultural burden had been placed on the eastern regions, but if this task was efficiently undertaken Russia would emerge victorious. “ When we rout the Germans —and rout them wo shall—it will be youth’s task to restore what is destroyed arid.build up the world of the future,” he’said ’ HO PROGRESS IN R>liß DAYS LONDON. October 24. The Germans are still held up at Stalingrad. They have made no progress in the last four days. All attacks are on a greatly reduced scale. Tn the Caucasus there has been no major attack on tlie Mosdok front. AMERICAN CIVILIAN CLOTHING WASHINGTON. October 22. , “ The time lids come to speed up the simplification of civilian clothing.” declared the War Production chairman, Mr Donald Nelson. “New and deeper curtailment, of civilian goods production is imminent, and in future essential civilian items will be scheduled exactly as military weapons are scheduled.” Mr Nelson, however, expressed the opinion that it was necessary to keep civilian economy sound to enable the country to carry on a strong war programme.