DANGER IN DON ELBOW

Southland Times, Issue 24830, 24 August 1942, Page 5

DANGER IN DON ELBOW

GERMAN FORCES MASS (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 22. All reports from the front agree that the battles of the Don Elbow have reached a pitch surpassing anything in the hundreds of furious encounters ox the past month in the whole of the Kletskaya region. Field-Marshal von Bock is still massing enormous reinforcements opposite the newly lished bridgehead in the Don bend ready for the vital thrust again Stalingrad. It is estimated that 500,000 troops and thousands of tanks and aircraft have been assembled for a frantic bid to cut off Stalingrad from the Caucasus. Russian newspapers emphasize that the German attack will be more dangerous than ever. Marshal Timoshenko is rushing up all available reserves, but the Germans maintain superiority in men and. material in this crucial sector. Moscow admits that the Russian positions are precarious, despite the destruction of the greater part of the force which crossed the Don. Berlin radio claims that the Germans and Rumanians in the area of the lower Kuban captured Krymskaya and Kurtshanskaya Moscow radio says the Russians on the Voronej front continue to advance at one point, despite five successive German tank attacks. Fierce battles are continuing along the west bank of the Don near Voronej. Russian resistance is stiffening south of Krasnodar, with fighting assuming an even fiercer character. The Germans succeeded in advancing on Friday only after an engagement in which they suffered heavy losses. German attacks in all other sectors of this front were beaten back. RUSSIAN SUCCESSES

A Moscow communique says: “Our warships in the Barents Sea sank one mine-layer and two coastguard vessels. Warships in the Baltic Sea sank a 15,000 ton tanker.”

The Soviet newspaper Izvestia says says that the Germans were hurled back to the Don river and reduced to dust by tank traps and were pinned to the ground by bayonets while the waters of the Don became the colour of blood. The Russians are still fighting inside the Don bend north-west of Stalingrad and are at present holding their own. North-east of Kotelnikovo the Germans continue to throw in reinforcements on a narrow front, but the progress they have made has been slight in the past few days as compared with the enormous losses they have suffered. In the Caucasus the German advance goes on south of the Kuban River towards the mountain range screening Novorossisk and Tuapse. The Cossacks are fighting dogged rearguard actions in the northern foothills to the south-east, but there also seems to have been a further advance against stiff resistance. A local Russian success is reported from the Leningrad sector. The Germans are reported to be trying to extend the Stalingrad battle zone by attempting additional Don crossings north-west of Kletskaya near the Medvyeditsa tributary, which reaches the Don’s left bank. Moscow radio says that fierce fighting has been resumed north-east of Kotelnikovo.

Pyatigorsk is still the only centre in the Spa region of the Caucasus from which fighting is officially reported, but Kislovodsk and also Zelenfhakskaya are now believed to be within the area of German operations. COSSACK DEFENCES

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the fighting over the Kuban area is moving towards the Black Sea, with the Germans heading for Novorossisk and Tuapse. Both these ports are protected by hills, in which the Cossacks are using every ravine in order to delay the enemy. There has been some activity in the Voronej, Rjev, Ilmen, Volkhov and Leningrad areas, . but very scanty information regarding it is available from either side. Moscow radio says that on one sector on the Leningrad front the Germans unsuccessfully counter-attacked 12 times, losing 800 men. It is now a year since Hitler launched his assault against Leningrad. The city is still fighting on after one of the world’s worst 12 months