NAZI TANKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1942, Page 3

NAZI TANKS

THROWN INTO BATTLE AT ROSTOV SOVIET REARGUARDS BATTLING TO THE DEATH. ENEMY FRONT WIDENED EAST OF DON. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 26. The Germans have made another breach in the defences of Rostov, and fierce battles are now raging in the outskirts of the city. A Moscow communique says the enemy, throwing into action large columns of tanks, have attempted with massive blows to break the resistance of Rostov. The Russians are defending every position and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. “Tire Red Army rearguards are battling to the death to hold up German shock troops who have penetrated Rostov’s outer ring of defences,” said the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Mail” in an earlier dispatch. “Picked units of the Red Army are manning house and building that is left standing. Rostov’s main roads and almost every side street are barricaded by tank-traps and anti-tank posts, while machine-gun nests are established everywhere. “Marshal Timoshenko has given the order to the rearguards: ‘Fight to the last. Hold the enemy to the end. Inflict the maximum casualties!’ ” The Moscow radio said the Germans had crossed the Don at several points north and south of Voronezh where they were least expected. The main crossing was still in Russian hands, but the fighting was increasingly A second German force which had crossed the lower Don in the Zymlyanskaya area (midway between Rostov and Stalingrad) had maintained the bridgehead. The Germans were steadily widening their front to the east in the Don, Elbow, and at least 600,000 men with 2000 tanks and a whole air fleet were battering at the gates of Rostov. ANOTHER ATTACK MADE BY SOVIET PLANES ON KOENIGSBURG. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 25. The Moscow radio states that during Friday night a group of Soviet

planes in unfavourable weather attacked military and industrial targets at Koenigsburg. Twelve fires and 56 explosions were observed. This is the third attack by Soviet planes on East Prussia in the last few days.