NAZIS STALLED AT STALINGRAD

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 240, 12 October 1942, Page 5

NAZIS STALLED AT STALINGRAD

FORCED TO SPEIL TROOPS RUSSIANS SE1ZE OPPORTUNITY

P.A. Cable.

LONDON, October 11.

The Germans have made no important attacks on any sector of the Stalingrad front for the past 24 hours, The panzei' and infantry divisions are evidently resting and reorganising after their severe losses, and the Russians are taking advantage of the respite not only to strengthen their defensive positions but to get in a series of hard blows wherever the enemy is caught off-guard. Observers believe that this luU explains the Berlin statement last week that no more infantry assaults need be launched against the city because the final process of its reduction could be completed by artillery and dive-bombers. It is considered in some^ quarters that this change in tactics was forced on the Germans by their exhaustion. The furious but futile offensive has worn Ihe panzer forces down and the High Command, lacking sufficient fresh forces, has been forced to call a halt. Thirty miles north-west of Stalingrad Soviet troops have moved forward, and German forces which crossed the Don have been driven back. A survey shows that the Germans are held up on all the main Russian fronts and, north-west of Stalingrad, Marshal Timoshenko's forces have again advanced. Crack Russian shock troops in a powerful attack dislodged the Germans from an operations base south of Stalingrad, says Moscow radio. Taking advantage of a moment when the Germans and Rumanians were exhausted after several days ' ceaseless attacks, the Russians advanced bodily and captured the base after bitter hand-to-hand fighting. The Russians attacking the German left flank north-west of Stalingrad captured another important height.

INHUMAN PRACTICE. Thei unbelievably inhuman practice of driving women and children in front of their attacking troops was employed yesterday by the Germans — and not for the first time — in an endeavour to gain headway on the Stalingrad front. A Soviet communique disclosing this adds that a Russian unit quickly ruslied to the German flank, attacked and inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, and freed the women and children. The Germans, despite their recent statement, are still using infantry in the Stalingrad assault. The statement is considered to have been necessary to cairn the minds of the Germans, as there is little doubt that the Germans are at last beginning to feel a drought in the matter of casualties. The Izvestia says the Germans have concentrated several fresh infantry divisions and tank divisions against north-western Stalingrad. More than 80 attacks in the last four days achieved only minor success. The Germans in one sector of Stalingrad penetrated the defences and captured streets, but were finally pushed back after losing a company of infantry and nine tanks.

More than 100 truckloads of supplies, as well as troops, are ferried nightly across the Volga to Stalingrad. German batteries constantly shell the ferries, but the boats keep crossing regardless of the risks. The crossing tak.es half an hour. The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet quotes a report that Marshal Timoshenko's northern relief arrn has at last forced the Germans to draw off reserves from Stalingrad, and adds that if the report is confirmed it means that the Germans no longer have sufficient reserves to feed the assault against both the Stalingrad area and the left flank defences, which would explain the sudden purported change of tactics announced by the Berlin spokesman. CHEERFUL REMINDER ! A bitter wind which has suddenly ibegun from the steppes around iStalingrad is fanning the flames of Ihe burning city. The Russians took pidvantage of the first twinge of bit- ' ing weather by dropping leaflets in the German lines reminding the attaekers that 300,000 Germans were frozen to death last winter. A Stockholm report states that General von List replaced Bock in command of the German armies on the south Russian front (Bock was reported to have been seen in Berlin in civilian clothes, and was supposed to have been dismissed after differences with Hitler). Moscow radio reports that the Russians south-east of Novorossisk, supported by artillery and bombers, are making determined counter-attacks. A Finnish communique states that the Russians are violently attacking on the Karelian Isthmus and Aunus front. The Russians have launched a determined attack in the Caucasian foothills for a three-peaked mountain which the Germans have fortified. Russian guns are storming strongholds, while Soviet alpine troops are slowly mounting to the summit. Cossacks and Black Sea. marines are firmly holding the Rumanians south-eastward of Novorossisk. The Germans further penetrated the land of the Kalmyks. Kalmyk herdsmen and fishermen to-day met at Astraikhan and pledged themselves to re~ | sist to the end the new threat to the i Russian left flank. I The Germans have not made any iprogress in the Mosdok region or fcastward along the Terek river. K Big enemy reinforcements are krriving at Rjev, via the Viazma fcailway, to a point within three miles K the city. The reinforcements are Hpported to include criminals, who B'e promised a pardon if they fight H. ■rhe Germans are unloading siege ■ms day and night, says a Moscow Bws agency message, in preparation ■ storm again, before the coming ■nter, heights which are the key ■int of the Leningrad defences. defenders use the nickname ■agnet Mountain" for the heights, B^use they have attracted so much ^HlI. After a year's bombardment and shell fragments around ■'uined observatory are as thick ^^H>bble-stones.