Attempts To Force New Don Crossings

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1942, Page 3

Attempts To Force New Don Crossings

Further enemy successes in drive towards Grozny oilflelds. Rec. 11.5 p.m, London, Aug. 20. 'J'HE Germans are reported to be trying to extend the Stalingrad battle zone by. attempting additional Don crossings north-west of Klietskaya, near Medvyeditsa, a tributary which reaches the Don's left bank. Moscow radio says fieice fighting was resumed to-day north-east of Kotelnikov. Pyatigorsk is still the only centre in the spa region of the Caucasus from which fighting is officially reported, but Kislovodsk and Zelenfhalkskaya are now believed to be within the area of German operations. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says fighting in the lower Kuban area is moving towards the Black Sea, with the Germans heading for Novorossisk and Tuapse. Both these ports are protected by hills in which Cossacks are using every ravine in order to delay the enemy.

The Germans on the lower Kuban are stated to be preparing for an assault against Novorossisk. Their columns cutting towards the Caspian have been slowed up appreciably, although not checked. The situation in the Don bend southeast of Kletskaya is graver than at any time in the four weeks' battle, says a Moscow message. The Russians are driving off repeated tenacious attacks. They killed 2000 Germans in two days' fighting for one populated place. According to radio reports official news from Russia says that enemy units supported by tanks broke through southeast of Kietskaya in the Don bend and crossed the river but were wiped out to the last man. Marshal Timoshenko's position here is graver than it has been

in all the past four weeks' fighting in the Don bend. The Germans claim that they are across the Don and pressing on across the country leading to Stalingrad between the Don and the Volga. The Russians admit that the position is most critical, but reiterate that the enemy units which reached the river in the Don elbow area were subjected to the fiercest counter-attacks and practically wiped out. The Germans apparently used heavy guns of the type employed to batter down the Sebastopol defences. This armament helped to widen the wedges driven towards the river and also helped the enemy to consolidate his riverside positions before attempting to establish useable bridgeheads. The German occupation of the whole area within the Don elbow westwards of the river is believed to be inevitable. despite the Russians' spirited fighting back. The Germans made their dent in the Don elbow defences from the Kletskaya sector. The Russians are reported to be holding the enemy's thrust north-east of Kotelnikov where Marshal Timoshenko's men are adopting what is locally called aggressive defence. This means that the Russians are frequently sallying out from their own -positions in sorties de- ■ signed to anticipate and disrupt the German moves. Kotelnikov is a terrible scene of desolation. The wheatfields are oil-splashed and bloodstained, and there is the sordid litter of mechanised warfare throughout the fields— smashed tanks, lorries and trucks.