BOTH SIDES PAY BITTER PRICE

Southland Times, Issue 24836, 31 August 1942, Page 5

BOTH SIDES PAY BITTER PRICE

SLOGGING_MATCHES (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 28. The German offensive against Stalingrad and the Russian offensive on the central front have settled down to terrific slogging matches, in which both sides are pacing a bitter price in men and machines. The Germans now describe Stalingrad as a fortress whose outer defences are proving stronger and deeper than foreseen. The Germans are generally held, but they drove in a further salient southwest of Stalingrad. The Russian defences, however, are unshuttered. The Russians are finding the going equally tough on the central sector. They are exerting pressure along the 150-mile front between Rjev and Kaluga and are threatening Gjatsk ana Medyn. It is not yet clear whether the Russians are aiming at limited objectives or hope to build up a major offensive. The Moscow correspondent of The Times says the first attempt to storm Stalingrad has clearly failed. The German vanguard in some sectors are in considerable difficulties and are locked within deep Russian defences. This does not mean any general improvement, hut does indicate the extraordinary toughness of the resistance. The second attempt which is under way lacks the surprise element, and so is likely to be much more costly than the first. RUSSIAN COUNTER-ATTACK The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says the Axis retains the general initiative on the Stalingrad front, but progress everywhere has been checked. The Russians are furiously counterattacking with some positive success. They have recovered some ground west of Stalingrad, also in the Kotelnikovo area, where the position is more favourable than earlier in the. week. The Russians retain the initiative in the Kletskaya area. Unceasing air battles are raging over the Stalingrad . battlefront. German bombers and dive-bombers are swarming in day . and night to bomb the central residential areas of the city and roads and railways leading from it. The Russians are putting up a screen of fighters and claim that dozens of German planes have been shot down. They also claim that German planes have not succeeded in reaching military objectives in the city, although parts of the centre and the residential areas are burning. The German High Command states that the Luftwaffe burned down several ammunition factories and set fire to two large Volga freighters and a tanker. BOMBING OF STALINGRAD Reports from Stalingrad today describe how the Germans are patternbombing Stalingrad in the same wav as they made the mass raids on Rotterdam. The Luftwaffe dropped hundreds of high explosive bombs as wave after wave of machines went over the area. The Germans divided the residential area into squares and systematically bombed square after square. Leaflets were dropped .announcing the day and hour of the German march into Stalingrad. Vichy radio declared that the Germans in the Kalach sector crossed the Kalach-Stalingrad railway half-way between the Don and the Volga. The Germans also reached the extreme point of the Taman Gulf. A German communique states that the Russian offensive south-west of Kaluga and near Rjev has been smashed. Strong Russian forces south of Lake Ladoga attacked the German positions, but were repulsed in fierce fighting.