MAY HAVE PASSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1942, Page 3

MAY HAVE PASSED

MOST CRITICAL DAYS FOR STALINGRAD SOVIET WRITER’S HOPEFUL VIEW. STOCKHOLM REPORTS SUGGEST SWITCH TO CAUCASUS. (By Telegraph—Press Assoeiation—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, September 25. There are indications that Stalingrad’s most critical days may have passed. Major Zhuravlev, writing in the “Moscow News” says the Russians are gradually gaining the initiative in the city and that German air sorties over Stalingrad are now less than half as numerous as they were a fortnight ago. Reports reaching the British United Press correspondent in Stockholm suggest that, switching their attention to the Caucasus, the Germans intend to leave the attackers at Stalingrad to hold their own and gradually reduce the city to an unimportant bridgehead. The fighting for Stalingrad, however, is still furious. The Tass Agency says 25,000 Germans have been killed on the Stalingrad front during the past week. Russian attacks north-west of Stalingrad, which some Russian reports describe as a counter-offensive, continue to gain ground. The latest front line despatches from this area say the Russians have recaptured a strategic village and two heights dominating a large area. The Columbia Radio’s correspondent states that the Russian recapture of the village forced the Germans to divert tanks, planes and troops from the attack against Stalingrad, but the Russians, with the support of Voroshilov tanks, continue to advance.