SERIOUS POSITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1942, Page 3

SERIOUS POSITION

IN WESTERN KUBAN AREA DIFFICULT WITHDRAWAL BY RUSSIANS. DEFENCE OF STALINGRAD VITAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, August 11. The battle for the approaches to Stalingrad has become more violent north-east of Kotelnikovo. and all dispatches from Moscow and Stockholm emphasise the gravity of the position and underline the very serious possibilities of a German' success hereabouts. The Germans need Stalingrad m order to straddle the Volga and effectively cleave the Russian communications, cutting off the northern mechanised armies and planes from Caucasian oil. Any German success before Stalingrad will menace Marshal Timoshenko, whose army, while it is comparatively intact, constantly threatens the grip of the Germans in the territories they at present occupy. The Germans meanwhile are fanning out eastward from Armavir and also closing in on the Novorossisk-Tuapse sector of the Kuban country. The Russians here are fighting defensive battles against thousands of German motor-cyclists who, armed to the teeth, are racing in hoping to confuse the withdrawal. The military situation in the western Kuban sector is clearly irretrievable, and the Russians are fighting back mainly for time to demolish and evacuate. The Russians in the sector east of Armavir have slowed up the Germans, but a huge column of armoured forces in still advancing toward the Caspian Sea along the Caucasus foothills. These facts are disheartening, buv raft disastrous, whereas if the Germans We not stopped before Stalingrad tjJey could weaken the entire Russian resistance. . The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says that Marshal Timoshenko is using all his resources to defend Stalingrad and the Volga and so maintain the Soviet Union’s vital communications, but Field Marshal von Bock is pouring in great forces of infantry and tanks. The battles of Kotelnikovo and south of Kletskaya are continuing with undiminished intensity. The "Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent reports that the Germans at some points in the Kotelnikovo area have forced their way into the Russian positions by sheer weight of metal, but the battle goes on without decision. The Russians in some sectors in the Kletskaya area have pressed back the Germans. The fighting in both sectors is the most bitter of the whole camoaign. , The Stockholm correspondent . of “The Times” says the spearhead ,of the German drive eastward from Armavir is reported to have bypassed the Mineralniyevody-Georgeivsk junction and turned south-east into the spa district, which is connected with the main Rostov-Baku railway by an electrified branch line. A Soviet communique states: “On August 11 our troops waged fierce fighting in the regions of Kletskaya, north-east of Kotelnikovo, and in the regions of Cherkesk (50 miles southeast of Armavir), Maikop and Krasnodar. There were no important changes in other sectors of the front.” A supplementary communique refers to highly effective work by the Soviet air force, which yesterday destroyed or damaged 40 tanks, 200 lorries carrying troops, arms and supplies, 30 ammunitions cars, seven oil tanks, and three ammunition dumps, as well as silencing batteries of guns and routing four battalions of infantry. The enemy round Kletskaya again suffered heavy losses but continued to bring up fresh reserves. All types of weapons are said to be in use in the .fighting to the north-east of Kotel/•nikovo. Reference is also made to a large tank ba;tle near a locality which was occupied by the Russians on the previous day, and this has forced the enemy on to the defensive. GERMAN CLAIM CAPTURE OF BRITISH TANK EXPERT. LONDON, August 11. The German news agency says: “Colonel Riminton, of the British Army, was captured by a U-boat with other survivors of a cargo steamer belonging to a British-American convoy. Riminton, a tank expert, was going to Russia to place his knowledge at the disposal of the Bolsheviks.”