SOVIET ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1942, Page 3

SOVIET ATTACKS

ON NORTHERN PART OF DON FRONT BRIDGEHEADS ESTABLISHED WEST OF RIVER. BREAK THROUGH ENEMY FORTIFIED LINES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 2. The situation of the Russians south of the Don has deteriorated still further as the Germans have forced a deep wedge into the defences in the area of Salsk, 100 miles south-east of Rostov. According to Teheran radio, the Russians have launched a counter-offen-sive along the Don front from Voronezh to Zymlyanskaya. Russian reports on the fighting do not use the term counter-offensive, but Moscow radio states that Marshal Timoshenko is continuously attacking in the Don area. The character of the Russian resistance, at least in the northern sectors of the Don front, appears to be becoming more than purely defensive. The Russian left wing is still falling back in some sectors, but German progress here has further slowed down. The Russians to the south of Voronezh are reported to have crashed through a fortified line and established two more bridgeheads on the west bank of the Don River. The German drive on the Don bend, south-west of Kletskaya, is not making headway. The Russians here are constantly counter-attackifig, and at one point the Germans have been pushed back several miles. Elsewhere in the Kletskaya sector, the fortunes are fluctuating in fighting which is hourly growing in intensity. Both sides are throwing in masses of tanks, artillery and infantry, and the skies are filled with contending planes. The “Red Star” reports that fighting in the Bataisk and Zymlyanskaya sectors is assuming ever larger proportions. To the south of Bataisk, the Germans are striving desperately to force the river barrier, but Cossacks are driving them .back. While there is a general feeling of impending crisis in the great Russian conflict, there is also a growing appreciation in London that Marshal Timoshenko may have begun to stem the tide of misfortune. Though the German advance is continuing at heavy cost south of Bataisk, below Rostov, Russian resistance appears to be steadily stiffening on other fronts.