FIERCE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1942, Page 3

FIERCE FIGHTING

ON RAILWAY EAST OF DON BOTH SIDES THROWING IN RESERVES. CONFUSED POSITION IN NORTH CAUCASUS. (Biitish Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.17 a.m.) RUGBY, August 6. The most important fighting on the Russian front seems to be raging eastward of Zymlyanskaya, where the Germans have made progress. The latest Moscow reports indicate that a determined resistance is being made to the eastward drive at the railway town of Kotlenikovo, 50 miles east of Zymslyanskaya. Both side are said to have thrown in masses of armoured forces and infantry and both have gained ground in various places. After heavy fighting on the main Caucasus railway, the Russians have again retreated to new positions. On this sector, about Armavir and Voroshilovsk, the German penetration has been rapid, but on a narrow front. Russian forces further north-west, down the railway, are resisting apparently in the general neighbourhood of Tchirskaya. The position is extremely confused in the North Caucasus area, as both sides have forces well behind the general line. In the Don elbow, neither side seems to have gained the advantage in the bitter fighting raging near Kletskaya. In addition to Black Sea and Sea of Azov naval, infantry and air arms, the defender; of the Soviet south are aided by river flotillas. These are assisting the land forces in defensive as well as offensive actions and protecting the Soviet flanks. They have destroyed more than 10,000 enemy soldiers, 14 aircraft, more than fifty tanks, and 25 field guns. Mobile warfare in the Soviet south demands the grea’test caution in mancouvre by these river flotillas, which are operating often in waters of which both banks are held by the enemy. GERMAN CLAIM CAPTURE OF ANOTHER DON TOWN. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 6. The Germans have captured Tchirskaya (about 70 miles west-south-west of Stalingrad) according to the Berlin radio. BRITISH AMBASSADOR ARRIVAL IN MOSCOW. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, August 5. The British Ambassador,-Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr, arrived in Moscow today from Kuibyshev.