TERRIFIC SLOGGING MATCHES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20876, 31 August 1942, Page 3

TERRIFIC SLOGGING MATCHES

RUSSIAN BATTLES NAZIS CHECKED BITTER PRICE PAID RED PRESSURE ON RJEV (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON. Aug. 30. The German offensive against Stalingrad and the Russian offensive on the central front have settled clown to terrific slogging matches in which both sides are paying a bitter price in men and machines. The Germans now describe Stalingrad as a fortress whose outer defences are proving stronger and deeper than was foreseen. The Germans generally are held, but drove in a further salient south-west of Stalingrad. The Russian defences, however, are unshattered. The Russians are finding the going equally tough in the central sector. They are exerting pressure along a 150-mile front between Rjev and Kuluga. threatening Gjatsk and Medyn. It is not yet clear whether the Russians are aiming at limited objectives or hope to build up a major offensive. No official mention was made by the Russians to-day of .the progress of their offensive on .the central front,nor of the Russian counter-attacks which the Geimtns say have been launched south-westward of Kaluga in the direction of Bryansk. The fact that the midnight Soviet communique merely reports that no material changes occurred on the front on Friday indicates that the Russians in the central front continue to advance against stiff enemy resistance. On one sector of this front, Soviet troops attacked a strongly fortified region where the Germans had erected a great number of fortifications and laid many minefields. A Soviet unit broke the enemy defence and, despite strong resistance, dislodged the enemy in one locality and then proceeded to dislodge them from a further six localities. Rjev Aerodrome Taken The Pravda reports that General Zhukov’s army in the last three days recaptured 13 villages and smashed through the first-line defences around Rjev. The Russians captured the aerodrome area of Rjev, greatly hindering the .-assembly of German reserves and supplies. The Germans have converted every street in Rjev into a minefield and piled every crossing high with tank obstacles. Russian guns continue .to pound the network of pill-boxes around the town. The Germans describe the Russian offensive at Rjev as a gigantic effort. General Zhukov is reported to have brought up troops and masses of tanks from depots deep in central Russia. The fzvestia reveals .that Russian marines and airmen dealt a severe blow to a large expeditionary force which the Germans in the last two months have been massing on Lake Ladoga for a new attempt to break Leningrad’s defences. Stormoviks caught the expeditionary fleet at its base with vessels filled with troops, tanks and munitions, sinking five troopships and six warships. An S.S. division had crept up across the boggy grounnd to launch a simultaneous land thrust, but Russian marines fiercely attacked and wiped out much of the division. A Stockholm message states that a large number of German barges are concentrated in the Gulf of Finland for an assault on Leningrad. It is officially announced in Helsinki that 60 planes on Friday night bombed the city, causing fires and bomb damage.