RUSSIAN GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1942, Page 3

RUSSIAN GAINS

ON STALINGRAD & OTHER FRONTS MANY ENEMY ATTEMPTS SMASHED. HEAVY FIGHTING IN BLACK SEA AREAS. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— copyright) LONDON, October 10. Crack Russian shock troops, in a powerful attack, dislodged the Germans from an operational base south of Stalingrad, says the Moscow radio. Taking advantage of a moment when the Germans and Rumanians were exhausted after several days’ ceaseless attacks, the Russians advanced bodily and captured the base after bitter hand-to-hand fighting. The Russians attacking the German left flank north-west of Stalingrad captured another important height. More than 100 truckloads of supplies, as well as troops, are ferried nightly across the Volga to Stalingrad. German batteries constantly shell the ferries, but the boats keep crossing regardless of the risks. The crossing takes half an hour. A Finnish communique states that the Russians are violently attacking on the Karelian Isthmus and Aunus front. The Russians have launched a determined attack in the Caucasus foothills for a three-peaked mountain which the Germans have fortified. Russian guns are storming strongholds, while Soviet alpine troops are slowly mounting to the summit. Cossacks and Black Sea marines are firmly holding the Rumanians southeastward of Novorosisk. The Germans further penetrated the land of the Kalmyks. Kalmyk herdsmen and fishermen today met at Astrakhan and pledged themselves to resist to the end the new threat to the Russian left flank.

The Germans have not made any progress in the Mosdok region or eastward along the Terek River. REINFORCEMENTS AT RZHEV. Big enemy reinforcements are arriving at Rzhev, via the Viazma railway, to a point within three miles of the city. The reinforcements are reported to include criminals, who are promised a pardon if they fight well. The Stalingrad and Mosdok areas are mentioned in last night’s Soviet communique. It states that at Stalingrad the Soviet troops repelling the enemy counter-attacks are improving their positions, and are smashing the enemy defence. In one sector an enemy attack was repelled, and more than 200 Germans were killed. An hour later the Germans again attacked, supported by tanks and planes. The Soviet artillery crippled five German tanks, destroyed five heavy machine-guns, and wiped out 400 of the enemy. On another sector forty German automatic riflemen approached a position with a white flag. The Soviet troops stopped firing, but the Germans, when they approached the position, opened fire with their automatic rifles. All forty automatic riflemen were killed. The Germans are still straining every effort to try to stem the Soviet advance north-west of Stalingrad, and are bringing up panzer forces and infantry divisions in massed attacks. Their divebombers are also intensely active, and one Russian unit claimed that 21 planes were destroyed in fourteen days. Fighting is particularly fierce for a large building commanding several city blocks. After changing hands three times, the building is now firmly in Soviet hands.

The latest reports from the Mosdok front state that the German Viking SS division and other reinforcements, supported by 100 tanks, made an attack earlier in the week and suffered heavy casualties, including 1000 killed.

NAZI LIE EXPOSED. A special Russian communique refutes a statement by the German High Command a few days ago that German troops had surrounded and annihilated south of Lake Ladoga seven Soviet divisions, capturing 12,370 troops and much material. This statement, says the communique, is an absolute lie. Neither south of Lake Ladoga nor in any other place have the Germans surrounded a Soviet division, or even a Soviet regiment. On the other hand, 60,000 Germans have been killed, wounded or captured south of Lake Ladoga. The aim of these offensive operations was to divert German forces from Stalingrad, and this purpose was achieved, while the Russians captured a number of key defence points which are now firmly held. The Russian losses in killed, wounded and missing were 21,384.