VOLGA CROSSING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1942, Page 3

VOLGA CROSSING

FRAGILE BUT IMPORTANT BRIDGE MAINTAINED BY RUSSIANS. IN SPITE OF TREMENDOUS ATTACKS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY, October 18. The defenders of Stalingrad are maintaining the Volga crossing, despite a ceaseless fire from German artillery and trench mortars and air attacks, says a Moscow message. At one place 28,000 civilians have already crossed by one pontoon bridge constructed on benzine barrels. This bridge has also served for the evacuation of wounded and the conveyance of about 7,000 infantry reinforcements. The Germans are trying desperately to sever this fragile lifeline, by which Stalingrad is connected with the Russian mainland. The Luftwaffe has dropped 740 demolition bombs and thousands of incendiaries, but the slight damage caused has been quickly repaired. Ammunition and equipment continue, to pour into the city over this precarious supply line, pitching and tossing amid the explosions of shells, bombs and mines. The “Red Star” says: “In its vitality the Soviet troops show a symbol of their own stamina and determination.” Very fierce fighting continues on the north side of Stalingrad, where, during a three-day battle, the Germans lost 150 tanks. The enemy, however, is keeping up ferritic pressure, concentrating most of his armoured forces and the Luftwaffe in this area. MajorGeneral Rodimtsev, the heroic defender of Stalingrad, recently had a narrow escape when an enemy tank nearly broke through to his command post, 300 metres from the front line. The tank flat-ironed the bunker housing the headquarters of Major-General Rodimtsev’s division, but the General and staff were unhurt. Major-General Rodimtsev’s guardsmen are sent to the most dangerous spots in Stalingrad and more than once have saved the situation. At one place they repelled a charge by two divisions supported by 70 tanks, 42 of which were crippled by the guardsmen. Major-Gen-eral Rodimtsev is a 36-year-old graduate of the Kremlin Military School and the Russian Military Academy. He was a pupil of Marshal Shaposhnikov, the present chief of the Russian General Staff. Major-General Rodimtsev fought as a volunteer against the Germans and Italians in Spain and was promoted major-general last year.