DEFENCE OF STALINGRAD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 31 August 1942, Page 5

DEFENCE OF STALINGRAD

Growing Russian Resistance RED ARMY GAINS ON CENTRAL FRONT Position in Caucasus Still Critical (Rec. 9.50 a.m.) London, Aug, 30. The growing Russian defence of Stalingrad still appears to be preventing the Germans from making any further territorial progress toward the Volga city. North-westward of the city a Russian counterattack dislodged the enemy from two localities. On another sector of the same front several enemy attacks were repulsed and fourteen German tanks destroyed. A Moscow message says an important settlement was recaptured and that on several sectors of the Stalingrad front the Germans had been forced to assume the defensive and regroup their badly mauled troops. •In the Kletskaya area inside the Don bend the Russians continue their activity. A Russian supplementary communique admits some enemy ad vance southward of Krasnodar. Here the Germans occupied several heights after fierce artillery and mortar fire. Soviet troops, however, counter-attacked and compelled the Germans to retreat to their original positions after an infantry battalion had been wiped out. No official mention is made by the Russians tQ-day of the progress of their offensive on the central front nor of Russian counterattacks which the Germans say have been launched south-westward of Kaluga in the direction of Briansk. London, Aug. 29. The fact that the midnight Soviet communique merely reports that no material changes occurred on the front on 29th August indicates that the Russians continued to hold the German offensive against Stalingrad. One Moscow message avers that the Germans have not advanced a single step towards Stalingrad in the past 24 hours. In fact, enemy forces which recently drove a wedge in the Soviet lines north-west of Stalingrad continue to be pressed back by Russian counter-attacks. The Russians are advancing in a semi-circle inflicting very heavy losses.

German troops broke through the Russian defences at one point near the city but the defending forces quickly rallied, practically wiping out the remainder of the enemy. • Demanding the seemingly impossible from airmen and soldiers on both sides, yet another week of slaughter has ended on the Stalingrad front with the Germans apparently being successfully held on all sectors.

“Pravda” says the Russians are launching ever increasing counter-at-tacks north-west of Stalingrad and continuing to push back the Germans and inflicting severe losses. Thousands of German dead lie before the Russian positions. Our troops on other sectors are successfully repelling German onslaughts. The Germans are doing their utmost to reach the Volga at all costs, bringing in new tanks and troops and hitting one place after another, but their strength and our resistance are growing.

The “Daily Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent says Marshal von Bock is still pressing as hard as ever against Stalingrad, but the main shock divisions of armoured and motorised forces were badly battered in the first attempt to break through. While the shock force wag regrouping Marshal Timoshenko snatched the chance to strengthen the worse sections by vigorous local counter-attacks. He is trying to liquidate the German wedges or build giant cells around them. The air attack by which the Germans tried to blast a path into the city were the most massive ever seen on the Russian front. The defenders were outtanked completely and outweighed in the air, but recovered magnificently to stop, outflank and finally encircle the shock force north-west of the city. The Zurich “National Zeitung’s” Berlin correspondent says the Russian, resistance at Stalingrad has litetfftllv doubled, the Russians flinging in huge numbers of tanks. THE CENTRAL FRONT

The Russians on the central front continue to advance against stiff enemy resistance

On one sector of this front Soviet troops attacked a strongly fortified region where the Germans had erected a great number of fortifications and laid many minefields. A Soviet unit broke the enemy defence and despite strong resistance dislodged the enemy in one locality and then proceeded to dislodge them from a further six localities. “Pravda” reports that General Zhukov’s army in the last three days recaptured 13 villages and smashed through the first line of the defences around Rjev. The Russians captured an aerodrome in the area of Rjev, greatly hindering the assembly of German reserves and supplies. The Germans converted every street in Rjev into a minefield and piled every crossing high with tank obstacles. Russian guns continue to pound the network of pillboxes around the town. “Izvestia” reveals that Russian marines and airmen dealt a severe blow to* a large expeditionary force which the Germans in the last two months have been massing on Lake Ladoga for a new attempt to break Leningrad’s defences. Stormoviks caught the expeditionary fleet at the base with the vessels filled with troops, tanks and munitions, sinking five troopships and six warships. An S.S. division had crept up across the boggy ground to launch a simultaneous land thrust, but Russian marines fiercely attacked and wiped out much of the division. LENINGRAD BOMBED 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 at Helsinki that 60 planes last night bombed the city, causing fires and bomb damage Germans describe the Russian offen sive at Rjev as a gigantic effort. Gen eral Zhukov is reported to have brought up troops and masses of tanks from depots deep in Central Russia.

CRITICAL SITUATION IN CAUCASUS

The situation in the Caucasus continues to develop critically. The Germans have pushed further southward from Prokhladnaya across the Malka and Terek rivers. The Russians are maintaining a steady enfilading fire from batteries and pillboxes dug into cliffs. The Germans claimed to have stormed some high passes across the mountains towards Tuapse and Novorossiisk. Clearly a situation of the utmost danger has arisen in this area. Berlin radio to-night stated that Ger. mans occupied Lineinoie, a'village on an inlet of the Caspian Sea, 40 miles from Astrakhan also Karpovka, 20 miles due west of Stalingrad and also Gonelnaya 15 miles from Novorossiisk. There is no indication of any further German advance in the Caucasus, while the Germans who have been attempting to re-take lost ground on the Leningrad front have been frustrated after five , days’ fighting.

The Russian morning communique recorded the sinking of two enemy transports totalling 12.000 tons in the Barents Sea. —P.A. and 8.0. W.