PERFECT TIMING LAST YEAR

Southland Times, Issue 24834, 28 August 1942, Page 5

PERFECT TIMING LAST YEAR

Winter Offensive Recalled (Rec. 7.35 pm.) LONDON, August 26. The Russians’ counter-stroke northwest and west of Moscow recalls the perfect timing with which M. Stalin launched his winter offensive last December in order to save Moscow. The Russians then held their blow until danger had swept up to the very ramparts of Moscow. Now General Gregory Zhukov’s armies have moved a week after the Germans broke through north-east of the Tsymlyanskaya bridgehead on the Lower Don and began the fierce drive through Kotelnikovo which is today battering against the outer defences of Stalingrad. It is still too early to forecast the effect of General Zhukov’s attack upon the crucial battles within a day’s march of Stalingrad, but figures contained in a special Moscow communique clearly indicate the weight of the Russian attack along the 70 miles front. German official reports for the past fortnight have indicated a strong Russian attack in the Rjev-Viazma areas. The Moscow communique indicates that these attacks have been on a considerably more substantial scale than the ‘ continuous probing activity conducted throughout the earlier part of the summer. FORMIDABLE TRIANGLE Rjev, Gjatsk and Viazma—all strongly defended hedgehogs to which the Germans clung when the Russian winter offensive forced them westward comprise a formidable triangle of great strategic importance covering Smolensk, which is the pivot of the German front in Russia. M. Stalin has ordered Marshal Timoshenko to hold Stalingrad at all costs, with the result that the full weight of the Russian armoured reserves was first moved up to the front today. The Germans replied with more dive-bombers and fighter-bombers, which are swooping in continuously against the strongly fortified Russian positions. The carnage on both sides is appalling. The battle for Stalingrad is still moving in favour of the Germans, despite the Russians’ valiant efforts. The Moscow correspondent of The Daily Telegraph reports that the Russians are still retreating in the Kuban Caucasus, where the Germans have established tank and air superiority. Vichy radio declared that the Germans in the North Caucasus had reached Krasnaya, on the Rostov-Baku railway.