MORE MENACING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1942, Page 4

MORE MENACING

THE GERMAN ONSLAUGHT ON THE DON TERRIFIC STRUGGLE FOR CROSSINGS TWO FORTIFIED POSITIONS. OVERCOME BY ENEMY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, July 26. The fighting at Zymlyanskaya (half-way between Rostov and Stalingrad) has assumed a yet graver aspect, says a Moscow message. The Germans have overcome two fortified Russian positions and a terrific struggle for crossings continues day and night. The Germans are using tanks, artillery and violent dive-bombing, in an attempt to paralyse the Russian defences on the southern bank. The Russian Air Force is retaliating boldly, engaging in dogfights over the Don, but the Germans are concentrating enormous masses of planes. The Russian guns are also in. action with .desperate fury .against overwhelming German mechanised forces. They smashed a score of German pontoon crossings and shot up rafts and flimsy boats, made of wood and rubber, with which the Germans have been trying to force the Don. They drowned more than a thousand men and scattered many, but the German hordes keep coming on,and the position has become worse in the past 48 hours. The Vichy radio reports that severe fighting is going on at the eastern extremity of the Don Elbow, where the Germans are advancing towards Ostrokyanskaya and Platishanskaya, on the west bank of the Don, opposite Stalingrad. The German offensive is no longei’ a push on a wide front, but an advance of separate shock columns. A German communique states that south and east of Rostov, crossings were forced over the Don. Russian attempts to build up an orderly and cohesive defence front on the southern bank of the Don have failed. NAZIS PUSHING ON FROM DON BRIDGEHEAD. VITAL RAILWAY MENACED. (Received This Day, 1.25 p.m.) LONDON, July 26. The Germans have pushed on from one of the two bridgeheads they established at Zymlyanskaya and are now threatening the railway between Stalingrad and Krasnador, which is only 32 miles from the Don, across open country. The railway is the direct route bettween the Moscow region and the Caucasus. One of history’s greatest battles is going on at . the Don River in the Zymlyanskaya region, where the Germans .are attempting to widen bridgeheads and establish others under the heaviest air and artillery screen. The Russians artillery smashed repeated sallies across the Don, while the Russians still north of the Don harry, the Germans, from west and east. INCREASING DANGER ADMITTED IN MOSCOW. IN SPITE OF RUSSIAN COUNTER-ATTACKS. (Received This Day, 1.25 p.m.) LONDON, July 26. A Moscow message says: “While Hitler is rushing up reserves, in an effort to break through towards the Caucasus, the Red Army has counter-at-taicked.and is endeavouring to.wipe out the enemy on the south bank of the Don, in the region of Zymlyanskaya and to prevent further crossings. Our troops are inflicting very heavy losses, but'the Germans continue to widen the area they have captured.” NO' SLACKENING IN THE GERMAN ATTACKS. POSITION AT ROSTOV ACUTE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received his Day, 1.5 p.m.) RUGBY, July 26. Despite the swathes mown from the advancing hordes, the “Red Star” states, the tempo of the German attacks has been sustained and is even, accelerating as more and more reinforcements are brought up the Germans are making multiple and simultaneous attempts to cross the Don. As Russian divebombers and artillery beat back cne : attempt, .the . Germans launch another, taxing .Marshal Timoshenko’s strength to the utmost. “The Times” Moscow correspondent says von Kleist’s Third Tank Corps with an air shock group of six hundred planes and ten infantry divisions, is the spearhead at Zymlyanskaya. The tank army has been radically reorganised since the winter. No longer are tank groups supported by lorried infantry, but by a. slower-moving corps, which is less vulnerable to counter-attack because .of its heavier infantry and artillery support. Over the entire southern front, adds this correspondent, and also far into ’the rear, the Red Air Force, reinforced by American machines, .is highly active. Dive-bombers and Stormoviks are attacking mobile columns on the steppe roads and also in the valleys of rivers, where tanks aqd lorries tend to congregate. Luftwaffe bombers, operating in dense greups, with strong fighter support, are attacking Soviet. communications. Transport planes are launching paratroops and rushing fuel to the tank columns and lorries.

Tode.y’s reports from Rostov state that the Germans have seized several defence lines, rendering the situation acute. Gallant Russian sorties are having some success, but it is emphasised that the enemy is considerably stronger in armoured forces and that the city is in great danger.