No German Progress at Stalingrad

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 207, 31 August 1942, Page 5

No German Progress at Stalingrad

Enemy Pushed Back in One Sector

(British Official Wireless.) Received Sunday, 9.30 p.m. RUGBY, Aug. 29.

The fact that the midnight Soviet communique merely reports that no material changes occurred on the front on Saturday indicates that the Russians continued to hold the German offensive against Stalingrad. Meanwhile the Russians on the central front continue to advance against stifr enemy resistance. On one sector of this front Soviet troops attacked a strongly fortified region where the Germans hau erected a great number of fortifications and laid many minefields. A Soviet unit broke the enemy defence and despite strong resistance dislodged the enemy from one locality and then proceeded to dislodge them from further six localities-

One Moscow message avers that the Germans have not advanced a single step towards Stalingrad in the past 24 Hours. • n fact the enemy forces which recently drove a wedge into the Soviet lines northwest of Stalingrad continue to be pressed back by the Russian counter-attacks. The Russians are advancing in a semi-circle inflicting very heavy losses. German troops broke through the Russian Ue .ences at one point near the city but the defending forces quickly rallied and are now practically wiping out the remainder of the enemy.

Demanding the seemingly impossible from the airmen and soldiers of bot.. sides, yet another week of slaughter ended on the Stalingrad front with the Germans apparently being successfully held in all sectors.

Pravda says: “The Russians launching -v-T-increasing counter attacks north west of Stalingrad are continuing to push Jack the Germans and are infiictin eevere losses. Thousands of German deau ue before the positions. Our troops in other sectors are successfully repelling the German onslaughts. The Germans are doing their utmost to reach the Volga at all costs and are bringin: m new tanks and troops, hitting one place after another, but the strength of ou resistance is growing.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Moscow oorres pondent says: “Von Bock is still pressing as hard as ever against Stalingrad, buthe main shock divisions of the armour, and motorised forces were badly battere. in the first attempt to break through While the shock force was regrouping •Marshal Timoshenko snatched a chane~ to strengthen the worst sections by vigorous local counter-attacks. He is trying to -iquidate the German wedges or bu 3iant cells around them.

“The air attack by which the Germans tried to blast a path into the city was -he most massive ever seen on the F:sian front. The defenders were outtanked and completely outweighed In tne air, but recovered magnificently to stop, outflank and finally encircle the shock force north-west of the cuy.”

The Zurich National Zeitung's Berlin correspondent says the Russian resistance at Stalingrad has literally doubled and the Russians are flinging in huge num oers of tanks.

There is no indication of any furthc German advance in the Caucasus, while the Germans who have been attempting to retake the lost ground on the Leningrad front have been frustrated after fiv • ays’ fighting.

Pravda reports that Zhukov's army In -he last three days recaptured thirteen villages and smashed through the first .ine of the defences around RJev. The Russians captured t.ie aerodrome area of RJev, greatly hindering the assembly o. German reserves and supplies. The Ger .nans converted every street in RJev int a minefield and piled every crossing high with tank obstables. Russian guns continue to pound the network of pillboxes around the town.

Izvestia reveals that Russian mariner and airmen dealt a severe blow to a large expeditionary force which the Germans .n the last two months had been massirat Lake Ladoga for a new attempt t •• break Leningrad’s defences. Stormovlks caught the expeditionary fleet at its bas with the vessels filled with troops, tankr and munitions, sinking five troopshi” and six warships. An S.S. division had crept up across the boggy ground to launch a simultaneous land thrust but the Russian marines fiercely attacked and wiped out much of the division.

A Stockholm message states that a large number of German barges are concentrated In the Gulf of Finland for an assault on Leningrad. It Is officially announced In Helsink that sixty planes on Friday night bombed the city causing fires and bomb damage. The Russian morning communtque recorded the sinking of two enemy transports totalling 12,000 tons In the Barents Sea.