FEW CHANGES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20877, 1 September 1942, Page 3

FEW CHANGES

RUSSIAN POSITION FURY UNABATED FRONTS STILL HELD STIFFEN RESISTANCE (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) < 11.30 a.m.) LONDON. Aug. 31. There have been no spectacular territorial changes in Russia in the past 96 hours, but mammoth battles of attrition rage with unabated fury in the Stalingrad-Kletskaya-Kotelnikavo triangle and also at Rjev, dwarfing the bitter conflicts at many other points of the 1200-mile front between Leningrad and the Caucasus. There have been no -significant changes on the Stalingrad front in the past five days and the rot has apparently been stopped in the Caucasus, where the Russians,, with their backs to the mountain wall, are holding off the Germans from the Grozny oilfields and from the naval bases at Novorossisk and Tuapse. However, Russian reports state that the Germans are bringing up considerable reinforcements on the Rjev, Stalingrad and Caucasus fronts—an indication, that Herr Hitler still. commands a great reserve pool of men and machines. -The Times’ 'Moscow correspondent says that-Russian’-resistance has stiffened from Voronej to the Caucasus. The Red Army appears to hold the initiative northwards of Voronej and continues to develop successes west and north-west of Moscow, and also at Leningrad, and also to consolidate its slight gains on the Bryansk and north-western fronts. Aims of Russians The Russian front falls into two halves. The whole outcome of the campaign depends on the Russian ability to make the, halves interdependent. The German commanders at Rjev, Gjatsk and Viazma are exhorting their men to fight so resolutely that General Wehrmacht will not need to transfer his troops from the south. On the contrary, the Russians in those sectors are told that they are fighting for Stalingrad and .the Caucasus. The Russian counter-offensive aims at doing what it was hoped that the Allies would be doing by now—drawing off German .pressure from the south. The Red Army counter-offensive is progressing slowly because the terrain —unlike the southern tank country—requires the canture of each town to control the highways radiating from them, otherwise the attackers are handicapped by swamps and forests. The Russians have enabled General Zhukov to swing troops in three directions against Gjatsk and Viazma, and also due west athwart the RjevViazma communications. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says that further Axis reserves are arriving before Stalingrad, where a supreme Axis attempt is impending. German spokesmen betray markedly diminished confidence, one stating:— “Only heavy artillery and mortars are able to shift the Russians from their formidable strongholds and also underground bastions which engirdle Stalingrad like a smaller Maginot Line. It is impossible to think in miles, but only yards, each of which costs material and lives. The Russian air resistance has-strikingly hardened.” Second Battle of Volga Persistent local activity continues around Lake Ilmen and along the Volkhov. The Russian ooerations from Leningrad continue. The Red Army broke into an unnamed town, and so far has beaten off nine counter-attacks. The Finns reoort that heavy Russian attacks were beaten off between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. Reuter’s correspondent somewhere on the Volga describes the second battle of the Volga going on only a few miles from the front —a battle to keen onen the Volga sunMy line in defiance of the Luftwaffe. Great tanker-barges, loaded to the gunwales, are fighting their way upstream, reinforced by everything that will float, including very small passenger steamers and ferries towing lighters and also rafts, some of which are 2001 t. long and composed of giant logs lashed, spiked and chained together and steered by giant sweeps. Many women are manning the vessels and rafts, with which the Russians are moving the greatest possible amount of oil and grain from the threatened regions. Oil workers at Baku are straining every nerve to increase the output, while intense activity is going on on the steppes east of the Volga and north of the Caspian, known as the second Baku. Many new wells have also begun to flow in the past few months at Buguruslan, which is east of Kuibyshev, and also at Bashkn, north of Kazakhstan. The Oil Commissar, M. Sedin, savs that war needs can be met from the eastern regions provided the second Baku maintains its output.