CHANGE FOR WORSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1942, Page 3

CHANGE FOR WORSE

WEST OF STALINGRAD GERMAN ATTEMPT TO BYPASS CITY. IN DRIVE TO THE VOLGA. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) ! ' LONDON, August 24. Both arms of the German pincer movement against Stalingrad have made progress and the latest reports from Moscow state that the position on the approaches to the city has seriously deteriorated in the past 24 hours. The German High Command announced that a great and decisive battle for Stalingrad is now starting. A British United Press correspondent in Moscow says a huge German tank force is advancing across the blazing steppes north-east of Kotelnikovo, threatening to by-pass Stalingrad and reach the Volga south of the city. The Germans have already driven a wedge into the outer rim of the Russian defences. The vital StalingradMoscow Railway is already under constant artillery and air bombardment and is now virtually useless. German tanks and Infantry, which crossed the Don yesterday in force, south-west of Kletskaya, are now driving forward in an attempt to reach this railway. The Red Army is making desperate efforts to hold up the German steam-roller. The correspondent adds that the military situation is equally grave in the Northern Caucasus. The German spearhead has moved some distance south from Krasnodar along the railway to Novorossisk. The Luftwaffe has intensified its attempts to wipe out the naval base of Novorossisk and Tuapse, but is meeting fierce opposition from the Russian Air Force. The Russian Black Sea Fleet is shelling German positions on the coast of the Sea of Azov. The Moscow radio announced that the Germans have captured Pyatigorsk.

A Russian unit between Moscow and Leningrad dislodged the Germans from eleven blockhouses, beat off thirteen counter-attacks and killed 650 Germans,