BATTLES IN RUSSIA

Southland Times, Issue 24837, 1 September 1942, Page 5

BATTLES IN RUSSIA

NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES (Rec. 7.50 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 30. There have been no spectacular territorial changes in Russia in the past 72 hours, but . the mammoth battles of attrition rage with unabated fury in the Stalingrad - Kletskaya- Kotelnikovo triangle, also at Rjev, dwarfing bitter conflicts in many other points on the 1200-mile front between Leningrad and the Caucasus. There have been no significant changes on the Stalingrad front in the past five days nor in the Caucasus, where the Russians, with their backs to the mountain wall, are holding off the Germans from the Grozny oilfields and from the naval bases at Novorossisk and Tuapse. However, Russian reports state that the Germans are bringing up considerable reinforcements on the Rjev, Stalingrad and Caucasus fronts, an indication that Hitler still commands a great reserve pool of men and machines. The Moscow correspondent of The Times says the Russian resistance has stiffened from Voronej to the Caucasus. The Red Army appears to hold the initiative northwards of Voronej and continues to develop its successes west and north-west of Moscow, also Leningrad. It is also consolidating slight gains on the Bryansk and north-west-ern fronts. GERMAN RESISTANCE The Russian front falls into two halves and the whole outcome of the campaign depends on the Russians’ ability to make the halves interdependent. The German commanders at Rjey, Gjatsk and Viazma are exhorting their men to fight so resolutely that the Wehrmacht will not need to transfer troops from the south. On the contrary, the Russians in those sectors have been told that they are fighting for Stalingrad and the Caucasus. The Russian counteroffensive aims at doing what it was hoped the Allies would be doing by now—drawing off German pressure from the south. The Red Army coun-ter-offensive is progressing slowly because the terrain—unlike the southern tank country—requires the capture of each town to control the highways radiating from it, otherwise the attackers would be handicapped by swamps and forests. General Zhukov, the Russian commander, has swung troops in three directions against Gjatsk and Viazma, also due west athwart the Rjev-Viazma communications. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says further Axis reserves are arriving before Stalingrad, where a supreme Axis attempt is impending. German spokesmen betray markedly diminished confidence, one stating: “Only heavy artillery and mortars are able to shift the Russians from their formidable strongholds, also the underground bastions which engirdle Stalingrad like a smaller Maginot Line. It is impossible to think in miles, only in yards, each of which costs material and lives. Russian air resistance has strikingly hardened.” OPERATIONS FROM LENINGRAD

Persistent local activity continues around Lake Ilmen. The Russians’ operations from Leningrad continue. The Red Army broke into an unnamed town and so far have beaten off nine counter-attacks. The Finns report that heavy Russian attacks were beaten off between Lakes Ladoga and Onega. Reuters correspondent on the Volga describes the second Battle of the Volga which is going on only a few miles from the front—a battle to keep open the Volga supply line in defiance of the Luftwaffe. Great tanker-barges loaded to the gunwales are fighting their way upstream, reinforced with everything that will float, including very small passenger steamers and ferries towing lighters, also rafts, some of which are 200 feet long, composed of giant logs lashed, spiked and chained together and steered by giant, sweeps. Many women are manning the vessels and rafts with which - the Russians are moving the greatest possible amount of oil and grain from the threatened regions. The oil workers of Baku are straining every nerve to increase their output, while intense activity is going on on the steppes east of the Volga and north of the Caspian known as the “second Baku.” Many new wells have also begun to flow in the past few months at Buguruslan, which is east of Kuibyshev, also Bashkir, in North Kazakhstan.

The Oil Commissar, M. Sedin, says war needs can be met from the eastern regions, provided the “second Baku” maintains its output. The Russians continue to make headway on the Central Front. They have had some local successes in the Caucasus and before Stalingrad. The Germans are doing their utmost to retain the water barriers in the Rjev area and are rushing up tank and infantry reserves. Terrific air battles have developed. The Russian newspaper Pravda says the Germans are fighting tooth and nail for every position in the Rjev area. A fierce battle is raging west of Substov, where the Russians occupied several new places. The Russians in the northern and north-eastern outskirts of Rjev dislodged the Germans from more pillboxes and are battling on for every house. Fighting is proceeding near the western approaches to Rjev in open country where the Germans dug themselves in, but the Russians are continuing their methodical progress. RUSSIAN COUNTER-ATTACK

Moscow this afternoon reported that despite fierce German resistance the Russians had recaptured four settlements in the Prokhladnaya-Mozdok area in the Caucasus, while numerous German attacks had been repulsed on other sectors of these fronts. Russian coastal defences on Saturday smashed a German landing attempt on the Black Sea coast, sinking 10 transports with shells. Not a single vessel was able. to anchor near the shore. The attempt was launched near the Kerch Peninsula.

Red Star, the Red Army newspaper, says the Russians north-west of Stalingrad have captured an important unnamed town. Red Army troops after a fierce battle drove the Germans from heights covering vital roads at the rear of the town. Other units, after frontal and flank assaults, pushed the Germans into the streets, where the battle was carried on until the enemy remnants had been wiped out. The German communique states that infantry and motorized units with strong air support broke through strongly-fortified positions in the Stalingrad area and penetrated deeply the Russian defence system. RUSSIAN PLANES RAID GERMANY LONDON, August 30. Moscow radio announces that last night a group of Soviet planes raided Berlin, Konigsberg, Danzig, Stettin and other towns in Central and Eastern Germany. In Berlin 48 fires including 17 large ones, were started and nine explosions were caused. All the Soviet planes returned safely.