STALINGRAD IN DANGER

Southland Times, Issue 24828, 21 August 1942, Page 5

STALINGRAD IN DANGER

DRIVE (Rec. 1.10 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 20. The growing German threat to Stalingrad is emphasized in Moscow. However, when the Germans tried to cross the Don at Kletskaya they were driven back with heavy loss. It is announced that the Russians have evacuated Krasnodar and the Germans are now 60 miles from Novorossisk. Commentators are now saying that while the German Army is still strong it is no longer what it was last year, when it attacked on £ front from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. The enormous losses of the Russian campaign have had their effect on Hitler’s war machine. The renewed intensity of the German attempts to blast the Russians from the defensive positions blocking the way. to Stalingrad and the speed with which Field-Marshal von Bock is pushing his Caucasian pincers towards the Caspian are causing the greatest concern over the Russian situation since the first German smash towards the Volga was held up. WEDGED RUSSIAN DEFENCES The Russians admit falling back in the central sector of the Don Elbow. The Germans, heavily reinforced with men and metal, succeeded in driving in and consolidating a sizeable wedge. The Russian withdrawal is reported to be orderly and the new positions are believed to be stabilized. The Germans in other sectors of this Kletskaya region have made no appreciable gains and have met constant counter-attacks. The Russians were more successful in the sector north-east of Kotelnikovo, where they checked a heavy German offensive. The Caucasian invaders,, meanwhile, are heavily attacking the Black Sea ports from the air and have pushed farther south in the lower Kuban and farther east towards Grozny. The Russians around Pyatigorsk, which is only 75 miles from the western edge of the Grozny oil-fields, are trying to prevent another of those deadly German tank break-throughs. The Germans who crossed the Kuban near Krasnodar have moved into the fairly wide eastern valleys where the Russian gunners are fighting back from the hillsides. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says that reinforced German

tanks and artillery at some points east of Kletskaya have battered their way to the bank of the River Don, where the enemy footing now appears to be firmer than at any previous penetration. In the region of the Lower Don northeast of Kotelnikovo their heavy losses have baulked the Axis forces.

LENINGRAD FRONT Reuters Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians have launched heavy attacks on the Leningrad front Russian infantry have advanced under cover of heavy artillery fire and have forced the Germans to retreat. Fierce fighting is progressing. The Russian Army newspaper Red Star reports that the Russians have withdrawn somewhat in the centre of the Kletskaya front. The German onslaught continues unabated. The withdrawal followed a mass attack by German tanks, motorized infantry and planes. The Russians, however, are holding their new lines successfully. Moscow messages state that the Germans have resumed the attack northeast of Kotelnikovo where a big force of tanks, motorized troops and aircraft were concentrated on a narrow front. The first onslaught was repulsed. Two German divisions penetrated a distance of five miles, but their losses were so heavy that when the Russians struck back they retreated. In another place German attackers were broken up by tanks as they were assembling and the attack was forestalled. Simultaneously the utmost efforts are still being made to expel the Russians from inside the Don loop south-east of Kletskaya where yesterday the Russians again made a withdrawal. A German advance near Pyatigorsk is reported and fighting is also being continued against the Germans.

The German two-fisted drive for Stalingrad has been intensified with new onslaughts in the Kletskaya region and north-east of Kotelnikovo. The latest Moscow reports say that the . Germans are attacking in all directions in the Kletskaya region with fresh reserves and bombers. They are doing their utmost to reach the east bank of the Don. The Germans have also resumed large-scale action on the front south-west of Stalingrad. GERMAN TANK ATTACK North-east of Kotelnikovo the Germans have concentrated huge forces of motorized units and tanks and have massed heavy artillery, which is throwing a barrage against the Russian positions, hurling hundreds of tons of metal against the Soviet forces. The Germans in one sector followed up the barrage by throwing in tanks and motorized infantry. Seventy German tanks fought 24 Russian tanks. Twentysix more Nazi tanks were rushed from another sector and were also turned back. Then a wave of 40 tanks appeared. They also failed. Finally 80 tanks attacked and cracked the Russian frontline. The Germans then advanced three and a-half miles before the Russians threw them back. The battlefield, was strewn with German dead and with mangled tanks and lorries.

DANZIG AND KONIGSBERG RAIDED (Rec. 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, August 19. Moscow radio stated that the Red Air Force on Tuesday night attacked Danzig, Konisberg and Tilsit. A number of fires broke out in Danzig and caused considerable damage. Thirteen sizeable fires were observed in Konigsberg and four in Tilsit. All the planes returned safely.