WINTER'S ONSET

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 250, 23 October 1942, Page 5

WINTER'S ONSET

RAIN & SNOW ARMOUR BOGGSNG DOWN GAIN BY TIMOSHENKO

B.O.W.

RUBGY, Oct. 22.

The German attack on Stalingrad has slowed down, and operations are being increasingly influenced by the weather. There has been no enemy advanee for over three days riow. Moscow messages say that the steppes in the Stalingrad region are swept by rain and occasional sncw-storms, but the Russians are attaeking' night and day north-west of the city. The battle has broken up into countless skirmishes for heights and vantage points. The Germans have thoroughly fortified their positions, and are using heights to command the approaches to villages and cross-roads. The rain has not damped the fury of the fighting, but is interfering with mechanised warfare as the surface of the roads has been washed away. Stockholm reports say that the renewed Russian attacks are occupying the ehief interest in Berlin, where the might of the machines striving to roll up the German line is stressed. A daring attack has been made north-west of Stalingrad by Marshal Timoshenko's relief force against the Nazis' left llank. They penetrated the enemy positions and after a stubborn fight, occupied two lines of trenches. At Novorossisk the Germans appear to be still attaeking. There have been heavy snowfalls in the mountains. There is little news from the Mosdok area, fout the following description of German tactics is given in a Moscow message: "After a week's heavy tank losses, caused by Russian artillery and anti-tank ■ rifles, the Germans have sharply reducedi the scale of their tank operations. German tanks take up initial positions three or four miles from the front lines, with guards on the look-out for tank hunters with their armourpiercing ballets. The Germans simulate mass tank attacks to draw Soviet artillery fire, then withdraw the main body of tanks and throw in infantry. "In one sector tanks attacked Soviet positions and turned back in the face of heavy flre, After a short interval the real assault was made by motorised infantry sUpported by only five tanks. This was repulsed with heavy losses. "Soviet infantry with armourpdercing two-man rifles not only meet German tank attacks with volleys from the trenches, but go out hunting tanks on light trucks. One sergeant crippled six tanks in four hours. The infantry attack German tanks even with ordinary rifles." RELIEF ARMY'S ADVANCE. Moscow radio to-night declared that the relief army north-west of Stalingrad have improved their positions, the Russiaps having widened the gap previously made in the German corridor. Izvestia states that the Luftwaffe dropped 1000 tons of bombs during 1800 attacks against a mile-long sector north of Stalingrad.

During the latest German assault the earth was seamed and wrecked with white-Tiot metal, but the Germans achieved only local successes. They failed in the objective of splitting the defences. The Russians, firmly entrenched, are still barring the way. According to Red Star, the Germans have lost 60 tanks in the past two days in their attacks 011 north Stalingrad. While deadly fighting is going on at both ends of Stalingrad, which is probably the longest city in the world, life in the centre is practically normal. Pravda says that the size of the city, stretching for 40 miles along the Volga, permits the continuance of life in the central section. Shells sometimes interrupt the life of these parts, but normally scme children still play in the streets; women tend their allotments and the electric power station is still working, while a newspaper is appearing daily. The Times's Moscow correspondent says that a battle of a very different character is being fought out on billiard table steppes south of Stalingrad, where villages are ten to 15 miles apart. The struggles here are for rare water wells. Germans and Rumanians are "sounding" village after village in an effort to drive to Astrakhan via the Lower Volga. The Russians are countering with small cavalry and motor-cycle patrols audaciously swooping on the Germans, A Stockholm message says that the German panzer tanks are now armed with several cannon and maehineguns and carry a crew of nearly 30.