GERMAN BLITZ

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20918, 19 October 1942, Page 3

GERMAN BLITZ

SOME GAINS MADE SITUATION CRITICAL PUSH IN FACTORY AREA (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON,. Oct 18. The battle for Stalingrad is .at its height. What the Red Star calls the decisive battle for the city is raging in a sector less than a mile wide, where the Russians have very little room for manoeuvre. The Germans have determinedly maintained their numerical superiority in men and machines. Stalingrad’s position is more critical than at any time since September, and the Russian relieving army shows no signs of really breaking through. Marshal Timoshenko’s forces have withdrawn four times within 48 hours. Very fierce fighting continues on the north side of Stalingrad, where during a three-day battle the Germans lost 150 tanks. The enemy, however, is keeping up a terrific pressure, concentrating most of his armoured forces and Luftwaffe in this area. V The .1 Germans at dawn Ton Wednesday • started the systematic - blitzing of the Russian lines in the factory area with groups of 30 or 40 planes, completing 1500 sorties by 5 p.m. on a mile-wide, front. Huge German forces launched attack after attack against northern Stalingrad. The Germans, who forced the Russians from one' of the workers’ settlements, tried to penetrate northwards and southwards from new positions, but the Russians held these attacks. The Germans’ planes and infantry combined in a ceaseless 72-hour assault against the workers’ settlement before the Russians fell back. On Thursday and Friday the Germans repeated Wednesday’s dosage of 1500 sorties against this narrow sector, plastering the north-western part of the city with thousands of bombs. The Berlin radio claimed that 3.000 bombers are being used round the clock against Stalingrad and against the Russian supply lines. Nevertheless, added the radio, the Russians at night are continuing to bring up reinforcements across the Volga. Factories Encircled The Vichy radio declared that the Germans have completely encircled the Red Barricade and Red October factories, which are the last centres of resistance in Russian hands in this area. Moscow reports state that the Germans lost more than 80 tanks and 2000 dead in the last 24 hours. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow describes the captured suburb as part of the industrial district stretching miles along the bank of the Volga. The Germans launched 25 successive attacks, sometimes using an entire division supported by 100 tanks. The final assault was made with two regiments of infantry plus 70 tanks. The Russians set 40 tanks ablaze before they withdrew.

A front-line despatch to the Izvestia says that the Germans in northwestern Stalingrad appear to be using forces at least equal to the previous offensive, when four infantry and one tank divisions assaulted the city. The German radio says that German tanks and infantry penetrated into the Red Barricade factory and captured half the Red October factory. It adds that mopping up continues in the Spartakova workers’ settlement, which was captured yesterday. A German report states that a tank division at Stalingrad rushed through to the Volga and captured the northern part of the industrial suburbs containing the Dzerzhinsky factory.