Timoshenko Holding Latest Thrust

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 209, 2 September 1942, Page 5

Timoshenko Holding Latest Thrust

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received Tuesday, 11.50 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 1. The Daily Express’s Stockholm representative reports that a German column consisting of several hundred tanks supported by a great number of Stukas ant iiuantry regiments advanced four miies awards Staungrad along the Kotwlnikov«--talingrad rai.way. The Germans claim to have reached the last detenoe belt .niies from the city's cenxre. The Germans were severely mauied during this advance by artillery and Vorosnnov -anks and at some po.nts lost 80 per -cnc. of tneir men and tames. The latest messages state that Timoa.ienko has sent in fresh reserves who are holding well. Neutral military observers letuming to Ankara from a visit to the Crimea state that isolated Russian units are still holding out in several fortified underground positions around Sebastopol. The latest supplementary Soviet communique says: “In the region northwest of Stalingrad the Russians fought uerce actions against an enemy group which had driven a wedge into their lines of defence. In consequence of huge .osses in men and material the Germans attempted to bring up reinforcements. A Soviet reconnaissance unit discovered an enemy column of lorries carrying troops and army supplies and their artillery and aircraft attacked and routed this column, destroying the majority of the lorries. '‘Within the Don bend in the region of Kletskaya the Russians pushed forward. Italian troops in this sector were overwhelmed and prisoners of war and material were captured. “In the region north-east of Kotelnikovo the Russians repelled enemy tank and infantry attacks. In one sector of this front the Germans succeeded in drivmg a wedge into the Soviet defences. “South of Krasnodar the Russians repelled enemy attacks. One unit destroyed three German tanks and wiped out one infantry company. In one region the Germans dropped £OO parachutists in the Russian rear. They were surrounded, nowever, and completely annihiliated. 1 A Moscow message reports a successful Red Air Force attack against two German airfields on the Leningrad front where some hundred aircraft were concentrated. Fifteen German planes were shot down and twenty destroyed and sixteen badly damaged on the ground. The situation at Stalingrad where the Germans are making gains from their enormous effort is duplicated at RJev where the Russians are slowly increasing the area under their control in the face of very touQh resistance. The German propaganda machine today olaimed a new advance towards Stalingrad, but warned Journalists not to assume that the city’s fail was only a matter of days. The Russians, however, displayed confidence regarding the outcome of the RJev battle by permitting foreign journalises for the first time to see the actual fighting. British journalists report that the Russian offensive against RJev has developed in two mam thrusts north and south of the city which has swung inward but have not yet Joined up. The Russians have cut the railway leading westward from RJev. Thus the German garrison estimated at 90,000 picked troops has lost its last connection with its supporting points. The Russians west or RJev are slowly forcing the Germans souxh-easxwaru along the right bank of the Volga. The Germans are repeatedly launening heavy oounter-attacks in all sectors. Correspondents state that the Germans in some sectors have lost 60 per cent, of their personnel under the Russian barrages is which the new Russian gun “katyusha” figured largely. Correspondents saw orators 30 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep where the “katyusha’s” projectiles exploded. The “katyusha" is a big mortar. Before the opening of the central front offensive the Russians doubled and in some places tripled the main highway going westward from Volokolamsk to give military traffic the required momentum. The unusually wet summer left the heavy clay terrain waterlogged which threatened to impede the advance. Soviet sappers felled thousands of trees along the forest road after which they nailed great boards across the logs at a chassis’s width and the log-fellers oleared a wide strip each side which served as a tank highway.