ENORMOUS STAKES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 September 1942, Page 3

ENORMOUS STAKES

IN STALINGRAD BATTLE OUTCOME WILL INFLUENCE WHOLE WAR. ENEMY PAYING HEAVILY FOR EACH ADVANCE; (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 13. The Germans’ all-out drive for bitterly defended Stalingrad, coupled with the Russians’ determined assaults against the enemy’s strongholds in. the Rzhev sector, as well as the approach of the Russian winter, combine to make the next few weeks anxious ones for both sides. Berlin, has admitted that the struggle at Rzhev is very important for the safety of the German armies which are engaged at Stalingrad. Moscow has pointed out that, the German armies in the northern Caucasus are not safe as long as Stalingrad stands. Dispatches from Stockholm and Moscow suggest that a defeat of the Germans at Rzhev, and a German failure to subdue Stalingrad could influence the outcome of the whole war, as well as provide the most cheerful of winter’s opening for the Allied nations.

The Russians are losing some ground west of Stalingrad and also southwest of the city, but the Germans are not making sufficient progress to achieve i any sudden crumpling of Stalingrad’s defences. The position, nevertheless, remains precarious for the Russians.

They are being subjected to constant attacks by tanks and planes, and they must be overstrained after the four weeks of most intense battling; yet they are hanging on and making the enemy pay most heavily. IF STALINGRAD HOLDS. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that if Stalingrad holds, the German armies in the northern Caucasus would be semi-prisoners between the Kuban mud in the north and west and the snow-blocked mountains in the south. The Russians would be able to pour in troops through the Stalingrad gap, while their Caucasian armies would be enabled to turn on the Germans, who would no longer hold the advantages of mobility. The stakes’in the battle at Stalingrad are. enormous. Whoever wins, the other will be immensely weakened. , The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says the Russians are fighting with the utmost assurance before Stalingrad and are holding their positions till they are ordered to withdraw. SOME ENEMY CLAIMS. The Berlin radio, quoting the German High Command, stated tonight that the German troops round Stalingrad are working their way step by step to' the outskirts. Violent battles have developed in a factory area, where every house has been made a strongpoint. A German communique claims that Axis forces stormed several positions on the edge of the city of Stalingrad and pentrated to the southern part. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent says that the latest German reinforcements to reach the Stalingrad front include Major-General Roth’s entire tank army from the Kalinin front (between Moscow and Leningrad). A supplement to the midday Soviet communique announced a withdrawal at one point west of Stalingrad.

NAZIS WITHDRAWING

ON PARTS OF CAUCASUS FRONT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 13. The German activity is lessening in the Caucasus and enemy forces in some areas are reported to be retreating northward and north- . westward. Small bands of the Red Army are harassing them with tommy-guns from‘‘the flanks. The Russian resistance in the Novorossisk area and also on the Terek River is very bitter. The position remains complicated, but the Germans have not penetrated farther toward Grozny. J x x 1 The Moscow radio reported that the enemy has begun to withdraw from the mountains behind. Mosdok after the heavy losses received as a result of ambushes.* The Germans yesterday concentrated all their available tanks in a single drive and tried to break out of the encircled position on the south bank of the Terek River, but the Russians smashed the attack and destroyed 26 tanks.