AT ALL COSTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20874, 28 August 1942, Page 3

AT ALL COSTS

HOLD STALINGRAD ORDER TO RUSSIANS APPALLING CARNAGE (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 27. M. Stalin has ordered Marshal Timoshenko to hold Stalingrad at all costs, with the result that the full weight of the Russian armoured reserves first moved up to the front yesterday. The Germans replied with more dive-bombers and fighterbombers which are swooping in continuously against the strongly fortified Russian positions. The carnage on both sides is appalling. The battle for Stalingrad is still moving in favour of the Germans, despite the Russians' valiant efforts. A Moscow message states that a terrific .tank battle has been raging for the second day and night northwest of Stalingrad, with hundreds of tanks and scores of planes massed on either side. The Germans, who have sustained enormous losses, with many regiments bled white, are reported to have been stemmed, but, as always, new reserves are brought up and flung into the battle. Larger Scale Dog-Fights

Large-scale dog-fights in the air are a frequent feature of the present battles and the Izvestia says that the Germans have brought in their best Luftwaffe units Soviet bombers and anti-tank Stormoviks have raided successfully enemy aerodromes and wrecked scores of planes which were ready to take off.

In the Prokhladnaya area, in the Caucasus, fierce fighting is going on for river crossings. Russian mortars and artillery batteries wrecked two bridgeheads and routed an enemy motorised column.

The Moscow correspondent of the Daily Telegraph reports that the Russians are still retreating on the Kuban, in the Caucasus, where the Germans have established .tank and air superiority. " The Vichy radio declared that the Germans in the north Caucasus reached Krasnaya on the RostovBaku railway.

Defensive fighting with enemy tanks and motorised infantry at Mozdok, 70 miles westward of Grozny and 150 miles from the coast of the Caspian, is mentioned in a supplementary Soviet communique.