FURIOUS STRUGGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1942, Page 3

FURIOUS STRUGGLE

AXIS TANK COLUMNS USED i AS BATTERING RAMS RUSSIAN FLANK ATTACKS. FAVOURABLE DEVELOPMENT ON UPPER DON. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 20. The tide of German men and machines is still ceaselessly, dashing against Stalingrad, but the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” reported tonight that powerful and sustained P>ussian counter-attacks have halted the German advance. The Germans made slight gains during the day at enormous cost, but the . Nniissians had restored most of the positions by nightfall. The simile of a battering-ram is now exactly applicable to the tight columns of tanks with which Field Marshal von Bock is pounding away at ' the stone, brick, concrete, and steel of the ■ city’s defence system. Sometimes as many as 100 tanks have advanced against the street barricades, closely followed by machinegunners and tommy-gunners, and engagements, almost at point-blank, are reported between Russian artillery and German troops. While the batteringrams hammer away at the selected points, hundreds of small hand-to-hand encounters are raging elsewhere along the perimeter. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow, in a later radio dispatch, said that the enemy were moving closer to the city in the south-west and north-west, while the battle became hourly more tense. So terrific was the roar of

battle that the rattle of machine-guns and crack of rifles could hardly be heard. , J , The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that the Russian flank attack north of the German corridor between the Don and Volga north of Stalingrad flagged during the weekend without achieving great success, but there is evidence now that a more determined effort is being prepared in this area. The correspondent adds that the Russian offensive on the broad front of the upper Don is developing favourably. The Russians made new advances during the weekend in spite of German counter-attacks, which were particularly sharp in the Voronezh area.

In the four-pronged Russian offensive launched at Voronezh last Wednesday, several positions have been taken. The northernmost prong bypassed the dense defensive area, and another prong captured heights west of the Don, and made new advances on Friday and Saturday morning. The advance is continuing through thicklywooded country. ’