SOME FOOTHOLDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1942, Page 3

SOME FOOTHOLDS

GAINED BY THE ENEMY IN TAMAN ACCORDING TO VICHY KERCH STRAIT CROSSED ON RAFTS. RUSSIANS DYNAMITE DAMS BEYOND ROSTOV. <By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 31. The Vichy news agency, reporting a German landing on Taman Peninsula, states that -masses of German parachutists from the Crimea at dawn were dropped on Temryuk, covering the infantry crossing the Kerch Strait in rafts. The Germans succeeded in consolidating several footholds, in spite of ferocious resistance from the Russians from their powerful fortified positions. Furious fighting on the open steppes on the right bank of the Don is reported by the Moscow radio. The heaviest fighting is occurring in the Don bend, . where the enemy is sparing no effort to break through to the river, and large numbers of German tanks have been thrown into the battle. The “Red Star” says the German ■' pressure south-west of Kletskaya, in the north of the bend, is being maintained. The battle is raging along a 50-mile front, and every type of ground force is engaged. The fighting in the sky is unceasing, and the Russian AirForce in one day destroyed 37 tanks and shot down 39 planes. The Stockholm correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph” reports that the Russians have dynamited dams and irrigation sluices on the Manich River ' and flooded the entire Manich Valley, along which the German panzers have been driving south-east from Rostov. i A German correspondent reports that the Russians erected powerful fortifications in the Manich area, requiring massed Stuka attacks to overcome them. The Germans admit that Marshal Timoshenko is strongly coun-ter-attacking between the Rivers Manich and Sal. The correspondent adds that Timoshenko has now flung his first reserve division into the KletBkaya battle. German correspondents agree that the Red Army’s resistance has greatly stiffened in the Don elbow, and some Russian reports hint that the German troops here are giving the first signs of exhaustion, but emphasise that this must not be taken to indicate that von Bock’s offensive is showing signs of collapse. The position in the Zymlyanskaya area is again serious. The Germans have won strong footholds on the southern bank, and enormous concentrations of infantry and panzers are waiting on the north bank. The Soviet news agency says that the Russians south of Voronezh, supported by planes and artillery, have launched an attack against the German defence lines. Russian .guns are smashing up enemy blockhouses, and have destroyed 17 fortifications in one locality by direct hits. Sappers are blowing up German mines and working passages through the barbed-wire entanglements. A Hungarian regiment, after long artillery preparation, counter-attacked .in one sector, and hand-to-hand fighting for an hour and a half resulted in the Hungarians being thrown back to their original positions. The Germans later counter-attacked with tanks, and the Russians not only repelled the Germans, but occupied new positions. The strength of the Russian blows in this sector is growing daily. LITVINOV RETICENT WASHINGTON, July 30. President Roosevelt conferred with the Soviet Ambassador, M. Litvinov, today but declined to reveal the nature of the talks: M. Litvinov, when asked whether he had called Mr Roosevelt’s attention to M. Stalin’s order to the Russian Army to halt its retreat, replied: “I suppose the President reads the newspapers.”