WINTER OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1942, Page 4

WINTER OFFENSIVE

LIKELY TO BE LAUNCHED BY- RUSSIANS REPORTED MASSING OF TROOPS. HITLER PROBABLY SHORT OF AIRCRAFT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) “".’(Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, November 17. The Russians are expected to launch a big winter offensive soon, according to*Moscow reports. In "what sector the attack will begin is a secret, but in the past week powerful Russian forces are reported to have been massing at a point between Stalingrad and Rzhev. Meanwhile fighting along the whole Russian front is confined tc small-scale actions. According to the latest dispatches the defenders of Stalingrad have improved their positions. The Russians in the Central Caucasus continue their steady progress in reclaiming territory in. the area south-east of Nalchik. They also still hold the initiative north-west of Tuapse. A lull prevails on all other fronts. Commenting on the reported impending Russian offensive, Mr Morley Richards, the “Daily Express” military correspondent, says Hitler is liable to find himself with an air inferiority in the sector where Stalin strikes. Hitler's difficulty is that he is losing aircraft faster - than he can replace them. The “Yorkshire Post” military writer says that the great German trek to the Caucasus has been halted. A significant pointer is that Turkey has stopped the transfer of troops to her Caucasus front. Turkey had been sending troops there since the Germans began approaching the CaucasianTurkish frontier.