ENEMY HELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1942, Page 3

ENEMY HELD

NO RECENT PROGRESS WEST OF STALINGRAD BUT GROUND GAINED SOUTH OF ROSTOV. RUSSIANS TAKE UP NEW POSITIONS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, July 31. • A Soviet communique mentions a further withdrawal south and east of Bataisk. Although the Russians at first repulsed the attackers, the enemy succeeded, at some places, in pushing forward at heavy cost and the Russians withdrew to new positions. Westward of Stalingrad, on the other hand, the Germans seem to have made no progress lately, as fighting is still reported south-westward of Kletskaya. The Russian positions in the valley of the Don thus appear to be held as far down as the vicinity of Tzymlyanskaya, below which the Germans have broken through in a southerly direction. At Voronezh the end of a fiveday defensive battle fought by the Russians is reported from Moscow. The Axis lost over 5,000 killed. The Germans have been renewing; their efforts to seize river crossings, by which the Russians have been bringing up reinforcements, and heavy German and Hungarian attacks along the west Bank of the Don southward of Voronezh have been beaten off.