BATTLE GROWS IN INTENSITY

Southland Times, Issue 24833, 27 August 1942, Page 5

BATTLE GROWS IN INTENSITY

German Para-Troops In Action (Rec. 7.50 pm.) LONDON, August 25. The Battle for Stalingrad is growing in intensity. German armoured forces and infantry, with formidable air support, pushed one steel spearhead after another from the Don towards Stalingrad yesterday afternoon and last night. The Germans regrouped immediately after they crossed the Don Elbow in the central sector. Then they swept on against the first Russian defence line. The Germans are also pressing their attacks from north-east of Kotelnikovo, where another fierce battle is in progress. It is from this direction that the Germans claim to have penetrated 12 miles. The Russians have not yet admitted the existence of such a wedge, but they state that a German force hereabouts is being persistently attacked from the flanks. It is clear that the major German Stabs from the north-west, west and south-west have not been halted, though they have been somewhat slowed up in the centre, where German tanks and troops are still pouring across the Don. HEAVY RESISTANCE The Stockholm correspondent of The Daily Express says Field-Marshal von Bock is seeking to counter the heavy resistance and to hasten the smashing of the Russian defence around Stalingrad. He has landed large forces of para-troops behind the Russian positions. Para-troops in groups of upwards of 100 have been dropped around railways and road junctions between 12 and 20 miles to the rear. The Russians are engaging them strongly. Junkers 52’s are continuously carrying para-troops, motor-cycles, tanks, antitank guns, mortars, with tommy-guns and grenades. German heavy bombers launched their first intensive mass attack against Stalingrad today. Russian fighters attacked them and antiaircraft guns put up a terrific resistance. It is feared that the civilian population suffered heavily. The raiders aimed principally for the central railway station, Volga shipping and armament factories. Dispatches from all sources agree that Stalingrad is an entrenched camp. The inhabitants are not evacuating the city, but are facing up to the enemy undeterred by air-raids. Stevedores are working day and night servicing Volga ships, factories are feverishly turning out weapons and the defenders are hourly increasing the anti-tank traps and strengthening strong-points. GRIM FIGHT PREDICTED The Moscow correspondent of The Daily Express reports that a crack gaurds division which won honour before Moscow under General Gregory Zhukov last winter is now in Stalingrad’s front-line. It is agreed that Stalingrad will fight back as grimly as Leningrad and Moscow, although handicapped by a lack of ground for manoeuvring and possibly by a lack of communications. Field-Marshal von Bock is reported to be smashing against Stalingrad with 58 divisions. His weakness is his army’s exhaustion. He has been fighting without a halt for three months and has traversed nearly 500 miles. The Kletskaya hills and the Kotelnikovo Steppes cost him between 20,0(10 and 25,000 men, probably 1000 tanks and perhaps as many planes. The question is: “Will exhaustion show itself as before Moscow last November, when the Red Army struck back?”