NEW AXIS TONE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20915, 15 October 1942, Page 3

NEW AXIS TONE

STALINGRAD FIGHT SOVIET INITIATIVE positionslmproved WINTER SNOWS APPEAR (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 14. The fighting in Stalingrad, according to Moscow reports, now takes the form of brief but fierce local _ skirmishes everywhere, with slightly heavier encounters at the factory settlement in the north-western suburbs. The Red Army continues offensive operations north-west and south of Stalingrad, improving its positions, capturing advantageous lines and impelling counter-attacks. In the south, the Russians captured a vital stronghold. Signs ai - e accumulating that the Russians ax’e beginning to reap the fruits of Stalingrad’s heroic defence in which they have destroyed so much of the German striking power and deducted invaluable weeks from Hitler’s campaigning season. It is now almost two months since the Germans began to develop the pincer movement against Stalingrad from the north-west and from Kotelnikovo.

The Stockholm cori’espondent of The Times says that the latest news indicates that the Germans are preparing for what they believe, or hope, wilL be the really final assault against Stalingrad, which remains a threatened bridgehead against the German winter line. • Even if Stalingrad is eventually elmininated it. is questionable now whether the Germans will undertake the prodigious task they originally intended of pressing 200 miles down the Volga to Astrakhan to secure their winter flank. Russians Reinfox’ced The Berlin radio describes the Stalingrad operations as a repulse ot (he Russian attempts to break out of the iron pincers in which the Germans gripped the city. The radio adds that Russian reinforcements are constantly arriving in Stalingrad across the Volga, indicating that more attacks can be expected. The Berlin spokesman announces that the chief activity is German raids, especially, opposite Moscow, tc ascertain the Russian intentions. This new tone runs thi'ough most official and unofficial German reports, admitting, in effect, that the turn has come for the Russians to take the initiative generally. The Times’ Moscow correspondent says that operations north-west .oi Stalingrad, between the Don and the Volga, and also further westward appear to have resolved themselvef into a series of rapid-moving battles of mechanised units between the respective entrenched lines. The Rus sians are gradually moving their line. l forward. The Russians are actively reconnoitring south of Voronej, where strong forces crossed the Don and took up positions on the right bank. At a plenary meeting of the Stalingrad Communist Party, held in the city of Chuyanov, the chairman of the city defence council reported on the situation. The meeting appealed tc nil Communists .to strengthen furthei the city’s defences and gave a pledge to defend Stalingrad at any cost and roiit the enemy. The meeting praised the work of the Communists at the tractor plant and also at the “Red October” and. “Barricades” factory, as well as railway and water transport workers. RussLan Gains in Caucasus

The Russians in the northern Caucasus are imported to be making extensive use of armoured trains ix. co-oi’dination with cavali’y, infantry, and the air force. In one battle an armoured train along with cavalry killed 1300 Germans. In another engagement, two trains killed 1400 ot the enemy. South-east of Novorossisk, the Russians continue mopping up in an unnamed settlement which was recaptoed from the enemy. All Gei'man attacks in the Mosdok area were repelled. The Gei’mans are now bombing the Grozny oilfields with incendiary bombs, which is a sign that they consider that it is at pi'esent unable to be captured. The winter snows are appeai-ing in the Caucasus, while Berlin reports that torrential autumn rains have set in on all the Russian fronts, transforming the roads into mud-tracks on which motorised movement is most difficult.