48-HOUR CHECK

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

48-HOUR CHECK

STALINGRAD PUSH RUSSIAN COUNTERS WEEK OF SLAUGHTER (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (II a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 30. The growing Russian defence of Stalingrad still appears to be preventing the Germans from making any further territorial progress toward the Volga city. North-westward of the city, a Russian counter-attack dislodged the enemy from two localities. On another sector of the same front, several enemy attacks, were repulsed and 14 German tanks destroyed A Moscow message says that ar important settlement was recaptuieo and that on several sectors on the Stalingrad front the Germans have been forced to assume the defensive and regroup their badly mauled troops. In the Kletskaya area, inside the Don bend, the Russians continue their activity. One Moscow message avers that the Germans have not advanced a single step towards Stalingrad in the past 415 hours. In fact, the enemy forces which recently drove a wedge in the Soviet lines north-west of Stalingiad continue to be pressed back by the Russian counter-attacks. The Russians are advancing in a semi-circle, inflicting very heavy losses. German troops broke through the Russian defences at one point near the city, but the defending forces quickly rallied, practically wiping out the remainder of the enemy. Held on All Sectors Demanding the seemingly impossible from the airmen and soldiers on both sides,' yet another week of slaughter ended on the Stalingrad front with the Germans apparently being successfully held on all sectors. The Pravda says that the Russians are launching ever-increasing coun-ter-attacks north-west of Stalingrad, continuing to push back the Germans and inflicting severe losses. Thousands of German dead lie before the Russian positions. Russian troops on other sectors are successfully repelling the German onslaughtes. The Germans are doing their utmost to reach the Volga at all costs, bringing new tanks and troops and hitting at one place after another, but the strength of the Soviet resistance is growing. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Moscow says that General von Bock is still pressing as hard as ever against Stalingrad, but the main shock divisions of armoured and motorised forces were badly battered in the first attempt to break through. While the shock force was regrouping, Marshal Timoshenko snatched the chance to strengthen the worst sections by vigorous local counterattacks. He is trying to liquidate the German wedges or to build giant cells around them. The air attack by which the Germans tried to blast a path into the city was the most massive ever seen on the Russian front. The defenders were out-tanked and completely out-weighted in the air, but recovered magnificently to stop, outflank, and finally encircle the shock force northwest of the city. The Zurich National Zeitung's Berlin correspondent says that the Russian resistance at Stalingrad has literally doubled. The Russians are flinging in huge numbers of tanks. Toughness of Resistance

The Times’ Moscow correspondent says that the first attempt to storm Stalingrad clearly failed. The German vanguard in some sectors is in considerable difficulties, locked within the deep Russian defences. This does not mean any general improvement, but it does indicate th& extraordinary toughness of the resistance. The second attempt now under way lacks the surprise element, so is likely to be much more costly than the first.

The Times’ correspondent at Stockholm says that the Axis retains the general initiative on the Stalingrad front, but progress everywhere has been checked. The Russians are furiously counter - attacking, with some positive sucbess. They have recovered some ground west of Stalingrad and also in the Kotelnikovo area, where the position is more favourable than earlier in the week. The Russians retain the initiative in the Kletska3 r a area. The situation in the Caucasus continues to develop critically. The Germans have pushed further southward from Prokhladnaya across the Malka and Terek Rivers. The Russians are maintaining a steady enfilading fire from batteries and pillboxes dug into the cliffs. The ! Germans claimed to have stormed some high passes across the mountains towards Tuapse and Novorossisk. Clearly a situation of the utmost danger has arisen in this area. The Berlin radio stated that the Germans had occupied Lineinoie, a village on ar. inlet of the Caspian, 40 miles from Astrakhan, and also Karpovka, 20 miles due west of Stalingrad, and also Gonelnaya, 15 miles from Novorossisk.

A Russian supplementary communique admits some enemy advance southward of Krasnodar. Here the Germans occupied several heights after fierce artillery and mortar fire. Soviet troops, however, counterattacked and compelled the Germans to retreat to their original positions after an infantry battalion had been wiped out.