RED ARMY OFFENSIVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 29 August 1942, Page 5

RED ARMY OFFENSIVE

More Progress on Central Front NO MARKED RELIEF TO TIMOSHENKO

Position of Stalingrad Still Critical

London, Aug. 28. Latest reports from Moscow claim that the Russians stormed and captured Rjev’s northern suburbs and street fighting is now in prog r ess near the city’s heart. One Russian force is reported to have by-passed the city. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Express’’ says the Russians captured Sychevka, on the railway between Rjev and Viazma thus cutting a vital German supply line. The Russians yesterday threw back ten German attacks northwestward of Stalingrad and eleven south-westward. Earlier messages state that although the Russian drive on the central front continues to progress encouragingly there is still no evidence that it has brought any marked relief for Marshal Timoshenko’s hard-pressed forces before Stalingrad and in the Caucasus. Stalingrad's position remains very critical, even discounting the Vichy report that German advanced units reached the Volga at Dubovka and are advancing southwards.

The latest German High Command statement on operations in this area claims that a German tank division yesterday drove 25 miles into heavily fortified positions south-westwards of Stalingrad; but there is no indication that this brings the invaders closer to Stalingrad than earlier reported. Germans in this sector are hurling more and more reinforcements into the battles, the ferocity of which correenondents report are unparalleled throughout the war in Russia. Berlin reports which a few days ago were confidently proclaiming the fall of Stalingrad as only a question of days are now more cautious and refer to the extremely difficult fighting before the city. Indeed, a Berlin military spokesman warned journalists not to expect Stalingrad to fall quickly, adding, “The Russians many times have shown surprising aptitude to bring in large reinforcements at the last minute and succeed in converting apparently already accomplished defeats into longhand stagnant deadlocks, notably Leningrad and Moscow in 1941.”

The Germans’ chief effort in the Caucasus is now seemingly directed towards the Caspian, and they are now probably within 50 miles of Grozny. The Russians, who are greatly outnumbered, continue stoutly to prevent German efforts to cross the river in the vicinity of Mosdok. British United Press reports that the Germans are also pushing down the main railway to the Caspian in an effort to reach Gudermes, where the Germans would then control a branch line to Grozny. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” points out that German progress to Mosdok represents an advance of 35 miles in three days. THE CENTRAL FRONT Russians operating on the central front promise complete liquidation of the dangerous Rjev pocket—dangerous because Rjev is a potential springboard for the resumption of attacks against Kalinin and Moscow. Bitter street fighting is raging in Rjev. The Germans are putting up a desperate resistance for the city, upon whose very high strategical importance all correspondents agree. Russians from the northern outskirts are steadily working their way towards the centre of the town, but it is a slow, grim job. Moscow newspapers do not hide the sanguinary character of the fighting nor the bitterness of German resistance which “Pravda” describes as “the strength of despair.” Meanwhile other Russian forces are battering southwards against the Rjev bulge, liberating village after village, and steadily overcoming what the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” describes as the world’s strongest and deepest system of fortifications. THE RJEV OFFENSIVE The Stockholm representative of “The Times" describes the Rjev offensive as of the greatest importance since Marshal Timoshenko’9 spring ofTentive against Kharkov. The correspondent points out heavy Russian pressure extends southward beyond Kalugi to the Orel region. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says the scope of the Russian offensive is widening both northwards and southwards of Rjev and the envelopment of a powerful German garrison at Gjatsk is now threatened. “Izvestia” stresses that Russian reserves are far from exhaustion. Only part of those available for central front operations are at present being used. The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” declares that when the Russian offensive began the Germans had 150.000 first-grade troops esconced in strong positions—P.A.