HUGE TANK RESERVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1942, Page 4

HUGE TANK RESERVES

THROWN IN BY RUSSIANS ON FRONT COVERING STALINGRAD NEITHER SIDE COUNTING COST. & GERMANS USING PARACHUTISTS IN CAUCASUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, August 25. "Huge Russian tank reserves have been thrown in against the German forces advancing on Stalingrad and terrific tank battles are being fought out beneath the blazing sun,” says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent. “Despite the desperate Russian resistance, the German panzers have reached within 30 miles of the city in the north-west and 50 miles in the south-west. Neither side is counting the cost and the battlefields are scenes of dreadful carnage.” The German High Command tonight claimed that a tank shock force from the south-west had penetrated twelve miles towards Stalingrad, after bitter fighting. Stalingrad citizens are being mobilised to dig trenches and construct other defences around the city. Factories are being moved to the east bank of the Volga. With the German pincers reaching towards Stalingrad, comes news of a third threat against the city. According to the Vichy radio, the Germans have launched a frontal attack from the extreme point of the Don bend, on both sides of Kalach. German tanks guns and infantry are still pouring across the Don by means of bridges of boats and rafts. The “Pravda” reports that the Germans have begun landing large numbers of parachutists behind the Russian lines on the Caucasus front Groups of a hundred, armed with tommy-guns, machine-guns and minethrowers are appearing in the path of retreating Russian units. Other Moscow sources report stubborn battles in many places south of Krasnodar, where, according to the “Red Star,” the situation is steadily getting worse. Large German forces have been thrown into the fighting for Khladnaya, where the Russians have vigorously counter-attaced, but the position is grave, as the Russians are heavily outnumbered. A German communique says Rumanian formations have captured Temryuk.