RZHEV BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1942, Page 3

RZHEV BATTLE

FOREIGN JOURNALISTS GIVE CLOSE VIEW MAIN THRUSTS FROM NORTH & SOUTH. RAILWAY TO WEST CUT BY RUSSIANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 31. The Russians displayed confidence regarding the outcome of the Rzhev battle by permitting foreign journalists for the first time to see the actual fighting. British journalists report that the Russian offensive against Rzhev is being developed in two main thrusts, north and south of the city, which have swung inward, but have not yet joined up. The Russians have cut the railway leading westward from Rzhev, and thus the German garrison, estimated at 90,000 picked troops, has lost its last connection with its supporting points. The Russians west of Rzhev are slowly forcing the Germans south-eastward along the right bank of the Volga. The Germans are repeatedly launching heavy counter-attacks in all sectors. The correspondents state that the Germans in some sectors have lost 60 per cent, of their personnel under the Russian barrages, in which the new Russian gun, "Katyusha,” has figured largely. Correspondents saw craters 30 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep where “Katyusha’s” projectiles had exploded. “Katyusha” is a big new mortar. Before the opening of the offensive on the central front the Russians doubled and in some places tripled the main highway going westward from Volokolamsk, to give the military traffic the required momentum. The unusually wet summer left the heavy clay terrain waterlogged, which threatened to impede the advance, but Soviet sappers felled thousands of trees along the forest road, after which they nailed great boards across the logs at chassiswidth. ‘The log-fcllcrs cleared a wide strip on each side of the road, which served as a tank highway. EARLY PORTENTS OF WINTER ON EASTERN FRONT. ANXIOUS PREPARATIONS MADE BY AXIS. LONDON, August 31. It will be many weeks before snow and slush bog down the Germans in south Russia, where the winter comes late, but the first slight snowfall is reported in north Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland, gave out a frost warning. Posters in Rumania, proclaiming that winter is coming, call: “Think of cur soldiers, who will again have to endure the Russian cold.” Rumanian reserve officers are organising a collection of warm clothing. Countryfolk are ordered to produce quotas of sheep skins and rabbit skills. The Hungarian youth organisation is helping with a similar drive. German huntsmen and foresters are asked to produce the maximum number of fox skins. A German fur company has been set up in Poland. A 8.8. C. foreign-language broadcast said: “Hitler and his unhappy satellites are again committed to another terrible winter of suffering in Russia.” STILL FIGHTING HEROIC SOVIET REMNANTS IN SEBASTOPOL. ANKARA. September 1. Neutral military observers returning from a visit to the Crimea state that isolated Russian units are still holding out in several fortified underground positions round Sebastopol.