GERMAN HOPES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1942, Page 4

GERMAN HOPES

ON THE EASTERN FRONT ALREADY SHATTERED ACCORDING TO BRITISH WRITER. FATE OF STALINGRAD NOT YET DECIDED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, September 20. The tremendous pitched battle around Stalingrad, which has now been raging without a day’s pause for more than three weeks, has not yet decided the fate cf the city but a writer, “Liberator,” in the “Sunday Observer,” expresses the view that the battle has already decided this year’s Eastern campaign. The author thinks it hardly premature to say that whatever its tactical outcome, the battle has foiled the strategic design of the German High Command. The main object of the Germans m the Russian campaign—the crippling of Russian offensive power—has not been achieved and this failure, in view of the sacrifices incurred, is shattering enough, the writer continues. As a result of this summer’s operations, given even the conquest of Stalingrad, the German defensive, position in Russia has palpably deteriorated.

STREET FIGHTING SPREADING IN STALINGRAD. RUSSIANS INCESSANTLY COUNTER-ATTACKING. (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, September 20. The bloodiest battles continue at Stalingrad, where street fighting is spreading. The Moscow radio says the Russians are incessantly counter-at-tacking. A front line dispatch describes the slaughter of a thousand or more Germans in a sector where they launched a fierce attack, supported by tanks and planes. The Germans reached . Stalingrad’s southern suburbs, but were repulsed. The “Pravda” says the Russians are steadfast in their refusal to accept the fall of Stalingrad as a foregone conclusion. Little remains of the modern city but battered hulks of buildings in a sea of rubble, but the defenders are fighting with an almost religious devotion, taking merciless toll of the Axis forces. The “Red Star” reports that German tommy-gunners are being rushed up to the city by plane. The Stalingrad defenders are fighting against a considerable numerical superiority. VORONEZH COUNTERSTROKE. Heavy street fighting is also going on in an unnamed town near Voronezh, where the Russians are cleaning up house after house. The Geimans on the northern part of the Voronezh front are doing their utmost to relieve their garrison, which the Russian troops, supported by tanks, threaten with extermination. NAZI LOSSES IN CAUCASUS.

Von Kleist's tank army has suffered heavily in the Mosdok fighting. The Germans attempted to break through south-westwards on the River Terek’s southern bank. Von Kleist apparently hoped to force the main Caucasus range to Tiflis before the snows fell. The Twenty-third Tank Division, the last of Von - Kleist’s Fortieth Tank Corps, was flung in and advanced a short distance for the loss of several dozen tanks. The Germans then threw the Third and Thirteenth tank divisions across a shallow mountain stream and also the 370th and 111th infantry divisions The Russians completely cut up the 370th Infantry Division, the Thr-’d Tank Division and a regiment of the 111th Infantry Division. They inflicted heavy casualties on other enemy units. The Germans advanced seven miles, but subsequently were pushed back from the area occupied in ihis advance. They lost at least 65 tanks in their attempted break through. . Two heights south of Novorossisk have been recaptured by Russian troops. • [ Al