ATTACKS HELD

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 249, 22 October 1942, Page 5

ATTACKS HELD

STALINGRAD FRONT RUSSIANS REINFORCED FRESH TROOPS CROSS VOLGA

P.A. Cable.

LONDON, Oct. 21.

The Germans have made no progress at Stalingrad for over two days. Every attack has been held, and the initial drive, which was intended to sever the Russian defences and break through to the Volga, has been checked. The new offensive has not altogether ceiased, but in his latest attacks the enemy has failed to gain further ground. k Considerable Soviet forces have ciossed the Volga and are now battling with a big formation of German and Rumanian tanks and infantry in northern Stalingrad, states a report from Istanbul quoted by Vichy radio. Moscow radio says that the Germans all day threw in fresh reserves against Stalingrad and launched attack after attack, but all were repulsed. According to Berlin radio the Germans occupied the whole Volga bank behind a Stalingrad factory, first cutting off the garrison from their supplies. "Two German columns attacking north and south of the road which leads over the pass to Tuapse have joined. up," the radio claimed. Dietmar, the German High Command spokesman, broadcasting oh Berlin radio, said: "The task of the German troops in the Caucasus is to protect the rich territories between the Don and the Kuban without which the Soviet Union will be unable to survive. The enemy is using many fresh troops, including trainees and members of the O.G.P.U. We face a formidable task. There is no question of storming forward and over-running the enemy positions. We can only advance yard by yard through seemingly endless Soviet fortifications." Last night's Moscow communique reports stubborn defensive fighting at Stalingrad. In the area of one factory an enemy infantry regiment supported by 40 tanks launched an attack which was repelled. The enemy suffered heavy losses when he brought up new forces and renewed these attacks. Fighting continued in the evening for these positions. German prisoners report that a German division fighting in the Stalingrad area iost 70 per cent. of its manpower. North-west of Stalingrad the Russians consolidated their positions. In the Mosdok area the Russians dislodged the enemy from one locality and continued to push forward. Enemy attacks near Novorossisk have been repulsed. GERMAN CLAIMS. Berlin radio says that groups of Russian riflemen entrenched in eellars and buried under masses of masonry are still holding out in the ruins o"f the Red Barricade factory. They are being destroyed or forced to surrender. The position of the defenders of the Red October works has become hopeless. German oceupation of further stretches of the Volga bank has completely stopped the arrival of Russian reinforcements. Women and children who were forced to stay in the centre of the fighting area inside Stalingrad are still emerging from their hiding places amongst the ruins. Berlin radio also states that continuous rain on the central sector of the Russian front is flooding trenches and dug-outs and making

roads impassable, but the Russians continue to attack the German advaneed positions. Izvestia says that the Russian blows in the Sinyavino sector are increasing in force from day to day. One German division after another is being crushed. The Tass Agency, quoting an Istanbul Leport, says that General Guderian is believed to . have been killed -on the Russian front. The German High Command is hushing up the news, but it is pointed out that Guderian's name has disa.ppeared from the newspapers in the past four months.

There is evidence, says the Stockholm correspondent of The Times, that the Gerihaqs are taking seriously the Russian concentrations on the Kalinin front. There is brisk transport of German reinforcements along the railways to Smolensk. The Russian preparations have the Germans guessing. The Russians may aim to pinch out the Viazma-Rjev-Gjatsk pocket, but the present concentration can equally be directed eastward and north-westward with the aim of outflanking the Germans before Leningrad.