SUPREME EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 August 1942, Page 3

SUPREME EFFORT

BEING MADE BY NAZIS TO REACH STALINGRAD. ADVANCE BEYOND THE DON CLAIMED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 21. The Germans claim they are across the Don and are pressing on toward Stalingrad across the country between the Don and the Volga. The Russians admit the position is most critical, but they retierate that enemy units which reached the river in the Don elbow area 1 were subjected to very fierce counterattacks and practically wiped out. The Germans on the lower Kuban are stated to be preparing for an assault against the port of Novorossisk. In the east the columns which have been cutting toward the Caspian Sea have been slowed up appreciably, though not checked. The Germans are evidently making their supreme effort against Stalingrad's defences. The Germans in the Don elbow have apparently used heavy guns of the type they employed to batter down the defences of Sebastopol, and armament has helped tc Widen the wedges which were driven toward the river and also helped the enemy to consolidate his positions on the riverside before attempting to establish useable bridgeheads. German occupation of the whole area within the Don elbow- west of the river is believed to be inevitable, in spite of the Russians’ spirited fighting back. The Germans are reported to be trying to extend the Stalingrad battle zone by attempting additional crossings of the Don north-west of Kletskaya near the Medvyeditsa tributary, which reaches the Don’s left bank. The Moscow radio says fierce fighting was resumed yesterday north-east of Kotelnikovo. The Russians are reported to be holding the enemy's thrust north-east of Kotelnikovo, Where Marshal Timoshenko's men are adopting what is .local ly called the aggressive defence; this means; that the Russians are frequently sallying out from their own positions in sorties designed to anticipate and disrupt the German moves. Kotelnikovo is a terrible scene of desolation. The Wheatfields are oil-splashed and blood-stained, and there is the sordid litter of mechanised warfare throughout the fields —smashed 'tanks, lorries and trucks. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says the fighting in the lower Kuban area is moving toward the Black Sea, with the Germans heading for Novorossisk and Tuapse. Both of these ports are protected by hills, in which the Cossacks are using every ravine in order • to delay the enemy. There is some activity in the Voronezh, Rzhev, Luke, Ilmen, and Volkhov areas, and also in the Leningrad area, but very scanty information regarding them is available

from either side. The Moscow radio says that in. one sector of the Leningrad front the Germans unsuccessfully counter-attack-ed 12 times, losing 800 men. It is one year tomorrow since Hitler launched his assault against Leningrad, and the city is still fighting on after one of the world's worst 12 months' periods.