Seaports In Danger From Nazis

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1942, Page 3

Seaports In Danger From Nazis

Evacuation of oil city of Krasnodar. London, Aug. 20. The Russians have withdrawn from the Caucasian oil city of Krasnodar, which has been occupied by the enemy. Krasnodar ,is only 60 miles from the important Black Sea ports of Novorossisk and Tuapse. Large German forces are now on the banks of the Kuban River, where the Russians are battling stubbornly to hold [them. ! The Caucasian invaders meanwhile are I heavily attacking the Black Sea ports from the air and have pushed farther south in the lower Kuban and farther east towards Grozny. The Russians around Pyatigorsk, which is only 75 miles from the ^western edge of the Grozny oilfields, . are trying to prevent another of those deadly German tank breakthroughs. The Germans who crossed the Kuban River near Krasnodar moved into fairly wide eastern valleys where Russian gunners are fighting back from the hillsides. _ The Russians' position is deteriorating west of Krasnodar, where the Germans in some places are reported to have occupied both banks of the Kuban River. A Stockholm report states that violent fighting has broken out near Novorossisk between the Russians and advanced German elements which crossed the lower Kuban River at Krasnodar. A Moscow message says that the threat to the Black Sea ports has increased as fighting in the Krasnodar area spreads eastwards and southwards from the Kuban River. The Germans in a number of sectors have driven fresh wedges into the Russian lines and have increased the pressure. They are doing their utmost to reach the east bank of the Don. The Germans have resumed their large scale action on the front south-west of Stalingrad. North-east of Kotelnikov the Germans have concentrated huge forces of motorised units and tanks. Massed heavy artillery barraged the Russian. positions, hurling hundreds of tons of metal against the Soviet forces. The Germans then threw in tanks and motorised infantry. Seventy tanks in one sector fought 24 Russian tanks. Twenty-six tanks that rushed another sector were turned back, then a wave of 40 tanks appeared and also failed. Finally 80 tanks attacked and cracked the Russian front line. "Ihe Germans then advanced three and a-half miles before the Russians threw them back. The battlefield was strewn with German dead, mangled tanks and lorries.