ALMOST DESPERATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1942, Page 3

ALMOST DESPERATE

POSITION OF GERMANS IMPORTANT PROGRESS MADE BY RUSSIANS. ON ADVANCE FRONTS & AT STALINGRAD. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, November 25. The situation of the Germans in the whole Stalingrad area, including the Don bend, yesterday again "deteriorated and now appears ■ almost desperate. The Russians are advancing from Kletskaya with increasing speed and apparently have cut nearly across the northern part of the Don bend, to within forty miles of Kalach. South of Stalingrad the Russians continue to widen the base of their advance and to clear the steppe country, while north of the city they have thrown the Germans back from the bank of the Volga and cleared some of the factory area. The latest Moscow messages say the defenders of Stalingrad have launched big attacks, aimed at raising the siege. They have begun to move forward in the principal sectors of the city and during the past 24 hours they have recaptured 50 or 60 pillboxes, firing points, an entire street and a strategic hill. Their movements seem to be directed towards three points. In the north of the city they have joined up with attackers from outside ttye city and are slowly clearing the factory settlements. In the centre General Rodimtsev’s guards are engaged in a ferocious struggle with a powerfully entrenched enemy. In the south, the Russians have occupied several inhabited places, inflicting heavy losses. This Stalingrad offensive is accompanied by devastating tank raids, whilst Cossacks, operating in the enemy rear, have helped to demoralise the retreating Germans. According to Soviet sources the Axis armies, at the end of the fifth day of the Russian offensive, had lost 40,000 killed and 88,000 wounded. These figures do not include three divisions, of unstated nationality, which surrendered yesterday in the Kletskaya area, complete with vehicles and staffs. Both railways from Stalingrad have been completely occupied by the Russians and it is pointed out that if the Germans try to withdraw from Stalingrad they can do so only by attempting to cross the Don in the Kalach neighbourhood, or else by breaking through an arm of the Russian pincer reaching out to Kalach.