GERMANS HELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1942, Page 3

GERMANS HELD

ON CONSIDERABLE PART OF FRONT RUSSIANS RESISTING SUCCESSFULLY. AND SEIZING INITIATIVE.

(British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) RUGBY, August 2.

The latest reports of the fighting on the Russian front indicate that the German advance is being successfully resisted, with the Russians seizing the initiative on the whole front except south and south-east of Rostov. In this latter area, where the fighting is mainly around Salsk and Kushchovskaya, the Germans are still reported by Moscow to be making some progress southward, but only at the Heaviest cost in men and materials. For two days in succession superior German forces attacked in the Salsk area in two columns, one carrying out a frontal attack, while the other crashed through on the flank. Aftei masses of tanks and aircraft had been thrown in, the Germans succeeded jn pushing the Russians back. The Soviet forces are ferociously contesting every yard of ground and are making occasional counter-attacks. At Kushchovskaya, the Germans are intensifying their pressure and trying to advance at any price. They face determined resistance from Cossack units, reinforced by artillery and anti-tank rifles. If the Germans succeed in their push westward, they will try to cut off the Soviet troops along the shore of the Sea of Azov, west of Bataisk.