NARROW FOOTHOLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1942, Page 4

NARROW FOOTHOLD

GAINED BY THE GERMANS EAST OF DON RUSSIANS FIGHTING HARD AT VORONEZH. SIGNS OF COMING OFFENSIVE AGAINST ROSTOV. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, July 13. A British United Press correspondent in Moscow reports that the Germans are penned within a narrow strip of land ten miles long at Voronezh. The Russians still have a foothold on the western bank of the Don, north-west of Voronezh and are continuing to hammer von Kleist’s army, which is attempting to cross the river. A Stockholm message says that the Germans are attacking Voroshilovgrad from the west and from the north. Another Stockholm report says that waves of German bombers yesterday attacked Rostov and other Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports, destroyed three bridges across the Don and started large fires. The bombings are believed to be the prelude to a large-scale offensive against Rostov along the coast of the Sea of Azov. A German communique states: “We are pursuing the Russians on the southern front on a broad front. Stiong air formations are attacking day and night. We repulsed a Russian diversionary attack north and north-east of Voronezh.”