NAZI THRUSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1942, Page 3

NAZI THRUSTS

MADE IN POWERFUL STRENGTH AND REGARDLESS OF LOSSES. RUSSIA LIVING THROUGH TERRIBLE DAYS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 23. A Soviet communique • reports that battles were fought last night in front of Rostov at Novo Cherkassk, 25 miles to the north-east, and also at Zymlyanskya, some 125 miles north-east of Rostov and 120 miles from Stalingrad. Reports from Moscow state that the enemy have made an advance toward Stalingrad from both the west and south-west, while also pressing the at-' tack in the Rostov area. In the Voronezh sector, the Soviet communique states, the Russian forces continue to press back the enemy and improve their own positions. The Moscow radio reports the complete route of the German forces fighting to the south of the town. The “Red Star” states that heavy German drives toward Stalingrad from the west and south are causing Russia to live through terrible days. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that Germans from Voroshilovgrad are hammering incessantly toward Shakhtui, 50 miles north-east of Rostov, with every available weapon and device. Nothing resembling a break-through has been achieved. The Russians are delivering shrewd counter-blows and inflicting heavy casualties as the Axis tanks ana infantry press forward, regardless of cost, over skilfully mined and otherwise prepared ground. Enemy airborne troops and gliders are reported to have been assembled for an attempt to seize Caucasian bridgeheads. The Paris radio declared that Rostov is surrounded and its fall is only a matter of time. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that in four days of hand-to-hand (ighting the Russians deprived the Germans of a big crossing below the junction of the Don and Voronezh Rivers, and also three crossings above the fork. The Germans within the fork are not actually cut

off from their main forces on the west bank of the Don, but their position daily becomes more difficult and costly. FEROCIOUS STRUGGLE. A battle of fearful ferocity is raging between the rivers, and great forces of tanks and infantry are locked closely. The “Pravda’”' says that Voronezh city is being cleared literally a step at a time. Strong forces of Soviet tanks and motorised infantry using American lorries on a large scale are advancing south from Voronezh. The Moscow radio declared that the Germans are throwing in still more tanks in an effort to force the Don crossings. “The waters of the Don are dyed red with the blood of tens of thousands of Germans, and the mighty river has already swallowed hundreds of tanks, lorries and carts.” The Russians, after the capture of German crossings of the Don River, are now operating in considerable strength on the west bank. The Germans retain only one of the four main bridgeheads across the Don, and this is under Russian artillery fire. The German news agency admitted a heavy Russian attack in the Volkhov area on the Leningrad front, in which some of 80 Russian tanks broke through anti-tank defences and got behind German positions, capturing two villages. The Russians attacked after a 12-hour artillery barrage, in which part of the German anti-tank defences and guns were destroyed, and pillboxes smashed and trenches blown in, burying some infantry. The news agency claimed that the attack was eventually repulsed.