ON OFFENSIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20914, 14 October 1942, Page 5

ON OFFENSIVE

RISfIAN FORI'K CAUCASUS AREA LULL AT STALINGRAD NEW BATTLE PROBABLE (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (3 D.m.) ~ LONDON. Oct. 12 ' The comparative lull in the ground operations at Stalingrad —which is not expected to last —has coincided •with-an upsurge of bitter fighting in the Mosdok and Novorossisk areas, •where . the Russians are achieving some successes. Air and artillery activity has not diminished at Stalingrad'and the lull probably indicates a preparation for a heavier landbattle for the city. The Pravda says that Stalingrad mavbe razed to the ground, but it will not be taken. The German divisions flung against the city are still melting away like sugar in boiling water.’

Russian Marines occupying a dominating hill half a mile from the city’s' 'outskirts are again mentioned to-day' for the first time since last month. They have been holding out for rfiore than a month against daily German tank assaults and punishing aerial bombardments. The Russians are claiming that their Caucasus successes are aidin’ affecting the German' timetable and Soviet observers are linking the ground lull at Stalingrad with the necessity for a German diversion of fresh divisions to the Caucasus, instead of to Stalingrad. Renter’s correspondent in Moscow says i'that at least one enemy division intended for Stalingrad was switched to Mosdok, where it is- already m action.’ One Rumanian division from Kerch-was on Jits way to Mosdok when the Russian activity in the Novorossisk area necessitated its transfer to that sector, where two Rumanian cavalry divisions were badly cut up.

terman Ranks Decimated lussians in the Caucasus have generally wrested the initiative from the Germans. Th'ey are 'holding up all German .thrusts -‘'against * the approaches to the Grozny oilfields. The 'Russians are npt f only spilling out against the Germans columns, but are improving defences in case the reinfbtced enemy ‘ ifiafiages to break through on any sector: The Russians on other fronts continue to decimate the German ranks. Persistent fighting ’continues, at ! Sinyavirio; south-east of Leningrad, where the Russians are concentrating their’grip on recently-won positions. The Russians on numerous sectors of the Kalinin froiitMbrth-wesfc of Moscow, ' are fighting • locally-important engagements. The Germans in one place’ ’drove back the Russians; but lost their gains before night, losing COO killed. " * ' '' ’ / y The Moscow radio declared that the Russians captured ah 1 important height in the Karelian forest,-oh the Finnish, front, and killed 1500 of the enemv.' A German communique states that .the Germans annihilated a Russian unit. encircled on the road to Tuapse and also smashed the bulk of a Russian Guards’ division rind part of a rifle division after hard 1 mountain fighting. ' ” : ' v ‘ A According to the Vichy radio, the Germans are continuing -their drive to Tuapse, and mopped, up most of the areas of resistance. Reconnaissance units are already in action‘on the .road leading to the Black Sea. Some London commentators say that the Russian military situation is more hopeful now than at any time since Germany began her summer offensive, t . Mr. Morley Richards, the Daily Express’- military writer, declares that there is Indisputable evidence that the German Army .around Stalingrad is reaching exhaustion. Reduced in numbers, the Germans have been 5 fought to a standstill. General von Roth may try again to capture the ’city, but the Red Army is supremely confident. German Thrust Blunted

The Daily Telegraph says that the lull in the German infantry attacks against Stalingrad is the best news wc Have had for some time. The Germans are feeling deeply their losses in front-line troops.

Thfe News-Chronicle says that there is no tendency to under-rate the enemy’s remarkable striking' power, but at last it really looks as l if the largtf German thrust has been so blunted that it may never be able to deliver a fatal blow, v Captain Liddell Hart, writing in the Daily Mail, says that their most recent setback may cost the Germans the chance of conquering the Caucasus and establishing 'themselves on the Caspian. He suggests that the smallness -of the numbers of tanks which the Germans are using in the Caucasus shows that the enemy is increasingly handicapped by the wastage of tanks and trained crews, and that the German High Command has- fallen back’ on the old habit of . employing tanks in driblets instead of in massed drives. - „ , . The Moscow radio says that, the People’s Commissariat for the Tank Industry announced that more tanks were produced in the first ten days of October" than’ in the corresponding period of past months.. The fighting quality of the latest model superheavy Voroshilov tank has been considerably increased ‘hs a 'result of the adoption of a number of suggestions from Red ‘Atmy tank men.