TRAPS EVADED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1942, Page 3

TRAPS EVADED

BV TIMOSHENKO’S FORCES RESULTS OF AGGRESSIVE RESISTANCE. VIEWS OF LONDON OBSERVER. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.22 a.m.) RUGBY, July 24. Reviewing the latest developments on the Russian front, a well-informed London observer, while recognising the serious strategic and economic assets the Soviet Army is losing, notes the fact that the High Command has evaded one German trap after another. Marshal Timoshenko’s right flank along the. Upper Don has stiffened and his left, about Rostov, facing the Crimea and the Kerch Strait, no doubt is strongly held. In the north, strong German efforts to hammer a way through at Voronezh, regardless of terrible casualties, are clear signs that Russian resistance —and aggressive resistance at that—is thwarting the execution of very far-reaching designs against the links between the Moscow region and the southern area. The observer considers that in the central area of the wide plain enclosed by the great bend of the Lower Don, a crucial battle may be soon fought in the sector covering the approach to Stalingrad. The Germans are throwing into the struggle great concentrations of aircraft, armoured formations and large contingents of Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian infantry. Indications are that Timoshenko’s weary but unbroken troops are falling back towards massed reserves. STRENUOUS FIGHTING REPORTED BY SOVIET. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) ■' RUGBY, July 24. A Soviet official report tells of strenuous fighting against numerically superior enemy forces in the region of Novo Cherkask, where strong enemy attacks were repulsed. Fighting continues with undiminished intensity in the Voronezh area and positions and places changed hands several times. At one river crossing, the Russians repulsed three counter-attacks. During the night fighting continued in the Voronezh. Tsymlayanskaya, Novo Cherkask and Rostov areas.”