POSITION IS TENSE

Southland Times, Issue 24881, 22 October 1942, Page 5

POSITION IS TENSE

ISSUE STILL IN BALANCE (Rec. 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 20. The titanic battle for Stalingrad is in its Sixtieth day. The issue is still in the balance, but the Russians’ position is daily becoming more tense. The Moscow correspondent of The Times says the break in the weather has limited air activity, but is not hampering the enemy’s ground forces. Strong tank forces are battering the northern industrial region with undiminished violence. The defenders clearly are very hard pressed. Each attack is preceded by two or three hours’ concentrated bombing, accompanied by a mortar and artillery barrage. Nevertheless, each day in which the Russians stand firm seriously reduces the Wehrmacht’s chances of developing subsequent successes and also has a significant effect on the Allies’ entire strategical situation. Stalingrad is as much a bastion of the Middle East as Central Russia. The issue of the whole Stalingrad battle hangs dangerously in the balance, says Reuters Moscow correspondent. If the Germans once install themselves in the northern part of the city the position in the centre will become most precarious. Major-General Rodimtsev’s Guards have not yet said the last word, hut the situation still looks very critical. Vichy radio declared that the battle for Stalingrad had reached its culminating point. The Germans laid down

on the “Red October” works, the last bastion of Russian resistance, the heaviest bombardment Stalingrad had ever seen.

Rome radio claimed that the Germans had captured the last bridge across the Volga to northern Stalingrad. DEFENCE OF FACTORIES Berlin radio said groups of Russian riflemen, entrenched in cellars buried under masses of masonry, are still holding out in the ruins of the “Red Barricade” factory. They are being destroyed or forced to surrender. The position of the defenders of the “Red October” works has become hopeless. The German occupation of further stretches of the Volga bank has completely stopped the arrival of Russian reinforcements. Women and children who were forced to stay in the centre of the fighting area inside Stalingrad are still emerging from their hiding places among the ruins. Berlin radio also stated that continuous rain on the central sector of the Russian front was flooding trenches and dug-outs, making the roads impassable, but the Russians continue to attack German advanced positions. The Russian newspaper Izvestia said that the Russian blows in the Sinyaveno sector are increasing in force from day to day. One German division after another is being crushed.

The Tass News Agency, quoting an Istanbul report says that ColonelGeneral Hans Guderian, the German tank expert, is believed to have been killed on file Russian front. The German High Command is hushing up the news, but it is pointed out that General Guderian’s name has disappeared from the newspapers in the past four months. Torrential rain has slowed down the assault. The German aerodromes have been turned into quagmires and the air attacks now are neither so frequent nor so effective. Some German artillery units, however, have reached a position from which the Volga crossing can be shelled. Despite this the broad waterway remains in use with swarms of Russian mosquito craft protecting its flanks.

Reports from Berlin say that the Russians are massing for a renewed drive between the Don and the Volga north-west of Stalingrad. Russian troops, tanks and artillery are continually moving up in this area. OFFENSIVE EXPECTED Berlin is also repeatedly emphasizing the major dimensions of the Russian movements in the Toropets area. The Luftwaffe for a fortnight has maintained round-the-clock attacks against Russian troops deploying in the whole region between Toropets and Kalinin, 200 miles north of Moscow, where it is said that a large scale Russian offensive can be expected. Russian forces are reported to be massing in areas forming a rough triangle between Rjev, Vitebsk and I.ake Ilmen on the Leningrad front, according to the Stockholm correspondent of The Times. Berlin inteiprets tlie Russian movements as indicating the resumption of the offensive which paused before Rjev, which is about 70 miles from Kalinin. The correspondent says that the ground in general is soft and it is questionable whether a largescale offensive is possible before the frosts.

The Russian troops in the Vitebsk region have been filtering through the German lines ever since the Spring to reinforce the guerillas in the forests and swamps. Russian planes drop ammunition and food and land in forest aerodromes to take off the wounded. The guerillas are now very busy wrecking trains, attacking communications and ambushing German punitive expeditions. BATTLE ON RIVER

The Moscow correspondent of The Times says that, in addition to the gigantic battle on the banks of the Volga which spreads many miles to the west and encircles Stalingrad in a large arc, a no less momentous battle is being fought out on the river itself. Stalingrad’s fate depends on its supply lines. The defenders require hundreds of tons of shells, bullets and food daily. Every type of craft has been mobilized for the Battle of the Volga Crossings.

The motley flotilla is manned by naval cadets, pensioners, gardeners, fishermen and women. They stick to their jobs and feed the battle’s insatiable maw with the greatest fortitude. This is the spirit with which one day, all Russia hopes, the people of Britain will mobilize their strength and courage to feed armies across the water.