GERMANS DESPERATE

Southland Times, Issue 24869, 8 October 1942, Page 5

GERMANS DESPERATE

ATTACKS ON STALINGRAD CITY EXPECTED TO HOLD OUT I. (Rec. 10.40 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6. The opinion is hardening that Stalingrad will hold out until the winter, when the freezing or the Volga may open a new phase. The freezing of the river would facilitate Russian military traffic across the Volga, but it might also enable the Germans to develop an encircling movement. Turkish military circles are of the opinion that if the resistance of Stalingrad is P ro ” longed Germany will have lost the decisive battle of 1942,. which will possibly be the equivalent of losing the entire war. The Daily Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent says that German prisoners confirm that Hitler in a message to the troops told them to storm the centre of Stalingrad if they did not wish to spend the winter on the frozen steppe. The Germans have never attacked so desperately and so incessantly or in such force as they did yesterday and never have they failed so completely, ine Russians did not lose a single position in 24 hours of incessant fighting. The correspondent says that toe Russians are gaming time of inestimable value for Stalingrad, for Moscow, for Baku, for Russian and for a general victory. They are keeping up one ot the world’s most decisive battles until help shall come. , The Tass News Agency says that the Russians at Stalingrad captured a secret report by the chief surgeon of the 15th German Division calling attention to a sharp increase of self-inflicted, wounds among the German troops. ADVANCE AT VORONEJ Moscow reports that the Russians advanced one and a-half miles on the Voronej front and captured a number of fortified centres. Heavy Gennan attacks with fresh troops developed at three points along the wider front on the Terek river, but so far they have made no progress. . , The great German assault against the workers’ settlement in toe north-west of Stalingrad has now raged more than 60 hours, but so far it has failed to gain I ground. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says that the present crescendo of toe German onslaught is apparently toe first direct result of Hitler’s emphatic promise last week that Stalingrad would be captured. The intervening days have been used to gather the German energies for the supreme effort. The Germans opened with a very heavy artillery barrage early on Sunday, after which a concentration of 30,000 men with a spearhead of 100 tanks was set in movement. The Russian newspaper Izvestia says that no such battle has been seen on the Stalingrad front for a long time. Waves of German planes bombed the Russian positions and 1000 shells and mines were pumped into the city, but toe defenders rose from toe ruins and overwhelmed wave after wave of German infantry. The fight continued throughout toe night under flares. The battle had not abated on Monday and during that night the Russians struck savage counterblows. The battle still continued on toe next morning with the same violence. Pravda’s correspondent at Stalingrad, declares: “The strength of our resistance plus the Germans’ bloody losses is creating conditions for another major defeat of Hitler’s armies.” Marshal Semion Timoshenko’s relief drives from the north-west and southwest are meanwhile making progress cautiously in (he face of fierce German counter-attacks.

SITUATION IN CAUCASUS GERMAN MISGIVINGS LONDON, October 6. ( A' Berlin broadcast tonight makes is clear that toe Caucasus situation is regarded with misgiving. An army gen- ( eral, speaking of toe situation, said:— j “The Caucasus Mountains are still m . toe hands of the Russians, who have ( established a strong, tenacious and ( numerically superior army there.” Em- ( phasizing toe difficulties of the Ger- , man troops in this area toe general said they often lacked water for me , n ,’ ; animals and tanks. This fighting could only be compared with battles in jungles or in glacier regions. Leningrad radio reports that in seven days of stubborn fighting on toe Leningrad front the Germans have lost 4000 officers and men, 17 tanks, nine guns and much other material. Fifty enemy block-houses, strong-points and dugouts have been destroyed in this sector. A Russian success is reported from toe Voronej area, where toe Red Army has broken into a large settlement from three sides, has killed 1800 of the enemy in street fighting and is still advancing. How toe Germans in toe Rjev area dropped eight cases of ammu.iiition over a height not knowing that it had been captured by toe Russians during toe fierce fighting of toe day is described by Moscow radio. Russian troops used the ammunition against the enemy and followed up their success during toe night, advancing a further seven miles. ADVANCE BY RUSSIANS The Germans are parachuting many snipers on the open steppe in an attempt to hold up toe drive from toe north-west in toe Stalingrad sector, but toe Russians, pressing forward, occupied a hill from which German artillery was operating. Vichy radio declared that the Russians launched a new offensive south of Stalingrad and that toe Russians _in Stalingrad received still more reinforcements. Reports from all sources concentrate on toe see-sawing Stalingrad battle to the exclusion of other fronts, but fierce fighting is occurring in other areas. The Russians, taking toe offensive at Voronej, cleared Gennan block-houses and increased toe depth of toe wedge driven into the German defences. The Germans are using para-troops on a considerable scale in the Caucasus, droning them at widely separated points, but the Russians held all attacks. The Luftwaffe has been considerably reinforced south-east of Novorossisk and is heavily bombing Russian positions. The Russians in the Mozdok area drove the Germans back from the outskirts of a village and killed 100 men and destroyed seven tanks. ’ Berlin radio stated that Marshal . Semion Budenny is commanding the i Russians in the western Caucasus. ; The German News Agency reports a ■ four-day battle south of Lake Ladoga and claims that toe Germans annihilat- . ed seven Russian divisions. The Ger- ; mans also claim to have advanced i south-east of Rjev, where they caused . heavy casualties to toe Russians. • 80 CRITICAL DAYS t i War Enters New Phase i (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 6. The Minister of War Production, Mr I Oliver Lyttelton, said today that toe s 80 critical days which he had predicted on July 18 were now over. No one I would wish to live them again. At toe ■ time at which he had made toe predic- > tion toe German offensive had been in " full swing and toe situation in Egypt . had been far more critical than it was : now. He had chosen 80 days because from ! about this time it would be impossible 1 to launch a fresh campaign in Russia momentous enough to attain major strategical gains, though tactical gains might still be won. Though it was true that, the war was now entering another phase, it was necessary to redouble our work in all parts of the i war machine. STALIN’S STATEMENT No Comment By Mr j Churchill i (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 6. Answering Mr Arthur Greenwood, ■ spokesman for toe Labour Party, in the House of Commons, Mr Churchill : said: i “I have read and considered toe statement made by M. Stalin and we I are quite clear that no statement from 1 toe Government is called for at the 1 present time further than those already i made on this particular subject.” 1 • “I have nothing to add to toe.care- ’ fully weighed statement I made last month and I would advise toe House ' not to press this matter unduly at a 1 period which is certainly of toe highest 1 significance,” he said. Admiral William H. Standley, Uni--1 ted States Ambassador to Russia, is re- ■ turning to Washington to confer with ' President Roosevelt. He has had a conference with M. Viacheslav Molo--1 tov, Soviet Commissar for Foreign Af- ’ fairs, and will see M. Stalin before he leaves.

President Roosevelt withheld comment on M. Stalin’s statement requesting toe Allies to “fulfil their obligations on time.” He said toe American Ambassador, Admiral William H. Standley, would return to Russia immediately after reporting. Referring to dispatches saying that Mr Wendell Willkie was urging a second front, Mr Roosevelt said he had not read them; he considered they were not worth reading because they were purely speculative.