STEEL SPEARHEADS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1942, Page 3

STEEL SPEARHEADS

THRUSTING NEARLY TO CITY MASS ATTACK BY ENEMY BOMBERS. HOPES OF EXHAUSTING GERMANS (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 25. The battle for Stalingrad is growing in intensity. The German armoured forces and infantry, with formidable air support, pushed one steel spearhead after another from the Don toward Stalingrad yesterday afternoon and last night. The Germans regrouped immediately they had crossed the Don elbow in the central sector, and then swept on against the first Russian defence line, the enemy are also pressing the attacks from the north-east of Kotelnikovo, where another fierce battle is in progress. It is from this direction that Ihe Germans claim to have penetrated 12 miles. The Russians have not yet admitted such a wedge, but they state that a German force hereabouts is being persistently attacked from the flanks. It is clear that the major German stabs from the north-west, west, and south-west have not been halted, though they have been somewha: slowed up in the centre, where German tanks and troops are still pouring across the Don. The Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that Field-Mar-shal von Bock, seeking to counter the heavy resistance and hasten the smashing of the Russian defences round Stalingrad, has landed large forces of paratroops behind the Russian positions. The paratroops, in groups of upward of 100, have dropped round railways and road junctions 12 to 20 miles to the rear, and the Russians are engaging them strongly. Junkers 52s are continuously carrying these paratroops and also motor-cycles, tanks, anti-tank guns and mortars, with which to reinforce their tommy-guns and grenades. German heavy bombers launched the first intensive mass attack against Stalingrad today. Russian fighters attacked and the ack-acks put up a terrific resistance, but it is feared the civilian population has suffeerd hc-av-'ily. The raiders aimed principally for the central railway station, the shipping on the Volga, and armament factories. Dispatches from all sources agree that Stalingrad is an entrenched camp. The inhabitants are not evacuating, but are facing up to the enemy undeterred by the air raids. The stevedores are working day and night servicing the Volga ships, the factories are feverishly turning out weapons, and the defenders are hourly increasing the antitank traps and strengthening the strong points. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Express” reports ’that the crack Guards division which won honour before Moscow under General Zhukov last winter, is now in Stalingrad’s front line. It is agreed that Stalingrad will fight back as grimly as Leningrad and Moscow, though handicapped with the lack of ground for manoeuvring and possibly with lack of communications. Field-Marshal von Bock is reported to be smashing against Stalingrad with 58 divisions. His weakness is the Army’s exhaustion; he has been fighting without a halt for three months, and has traversed nearly 500 miles. The Kletskaya hills and the Kotelnikovo steppes have cost him 20,000 to 50,000 men, probably 1000 tanks, and perhaps as many planes. The question is, will the exhaustion'evidence itself as before Moscow last November, when the Red Army struck back?