POSITION CRITICAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 August 1942, Page 3

POSITION CRITICAL

SOUTH OF KLETSKAYA FOLLOWING ON ENEMY BREAK-THROUGH. RUSSIANS FORTIFYING NEW POSITIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 15. According to a front-line dispatch to the Moscow “Red Star,” the German offensive against Stalingrad from Kotelnikovo has been arrested, but the dispatch adds a warning this is only the lull before a fresh storm. The German losses specially of tanks, have forced the enemy on to the defensive in certain sectors, where they are digging in, erecting barbedwire entanglements and hurriedly moving up reserves.

The Exchange Telegraph agency’s correspondent in Moscow says that the Russians defending the western bank of the Don are in a critical position after the German break-through south of Kletskaya. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the latest reports from the Don elbow show that the Russians have been pushed back in some sectors close to the west bank of the river, where they are fortifying new lines and counter-attacking to improve their positions. After the latest German breakthrough in the Krasnodar area in the Caucasus the Russians attacked the flanks of the advancing enemy, inflicting losses and slowing up, but so far not stemming the advance. The Vichy radio claims that the Ger-

mans .have reached the immediate apj- proaches to the Grozny oilfields. Quoting a Stockholm report, the radio says the Germans have sent reinforcements of planes and possibly troops to meet the Russian attacks in the Rzhev, Viazma, Bryansk and Voronezh sectors. Russian resistance is increasing round Stalingrad and the western Caucasus. The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” yesterday said that the battle in the Don bend before Stalingrad was most complicated. Infantry were battling against -infantry near the river, while tanks met tanks further west. The Germans had nowhere succeeded in co-ordinating their tanks and infantry, which is their usual strategy The Kotelnikovo battle, south of Stalingrad, also appeared to be dissolving into scattered fighting. The correspondent also said that the Caucasian army had fallen back in the vicinity of Mineralnye Vody. Strong Russian resistance was still reported from Cherkesk, further westward. The Germans encountered soldier resistance at Cherkesk, where they were being held up determinedly. General von Kleist had pushed on eastward with other columns. In the valley of the Upper Terek, from which military highways climb to the Caucasus, lies one of the world’s richest manganese deposits. Here more powerful Russian forces were certainly occupying positions more favourable for defence.

A Soviet communique states: ‘‘On Saturday our troops fought the enemy in the regions south-east of Kletskaya, and north-east of Kotelnikovo, Mineralnye Vody, Cherkesk, Maikop and Krasnodar. No important changes took place in the other sectors of the front.’ ’ On the wide Kalmuck steppe, the Germans yesterday claimed to have reached Elista, 160 miles west of the Volga Delta, and half-way between Stalingrad and the north Caucasus. A German communique today states: “We took Georgievsk (in the Caucasus). The Russians in the Voronezh area continued vain diversionary attacks. Numerous Russian attacks were frustrated south-east oi Lake Ilmen and at Volkhov.” It is reported from Moscow that three Russian submarines returned to a Baltic port after sinking nine German transports and a U-boat. The “Pravda” reports that strong German attacks on the Leningrad front were beaten back with heavy enemy losses. German reports emphasise the growing scale of their difficulties in the Rzhev battle, - which the Russians scarcely mention. The Germans yesterday “claimed to be holding the Russian attack in the bogs.