FROM BAD TO WORSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1942, Page 3

FROM BAD TO WORSE

POSITION OF TRAPPED GERMANS WEST OF STALINGRAD v Russians Firmly Holding Counterstroke From Kotelnikovo DEEP PENETRATION OF ENEMY FORTIFICATIONS ON CENTRAL FRONT SOVIET SAPPERS OPERATING BEHIND ENEMY LINES •LONDON. December 14. Reports from Russia this evening- indicate that the position of the German forces encircled before Stalingrad is steadilydeteriorating’. The enemy armies 100 miles south-west of the city, in the Kotelnikovo area, are making big efforts to divert Russian pressure from the Don-Volga area and to find weak spots in the Russian ring. Though the enemy attacks are strong they do not appear to have the scope of a major counteroffensive. Enemy tanks did succeed in driving a wedge into the Russian positions at one point, but they failed to establish themselves. The original Red Army advance south-west of Stalingrad brought the Russians almost to Kotelnikovo and they now appear tb be strong enough to hold German counter-thrusts of a far greater power than those the enemy has yet been able to make. Inside Stalingrad, the Russians have won back fresh ground in street fighting. Progress is slow and stubbornly contested. The Germans have not yet shovzn signs of giving up the fight. On the central front, the Russians are also maintaining their pressure. The Germans are making strong efforts to seize the initiative. The fighting seems to have brought no big change except in the area west of Rzhev, where the Soviet troops, after a four-day battle, have driven another wedge into the enemy’s defences. A correspondent states that fighting on this front is now taking place deep inside the German’s most vital fortifications. Their defences are probably the strongest of any on the Russian front. Groups of Russian sappers are actually operating behind the enemy’s lines. Soviet dive-bombers are keeping up their attacks against German fortifications and positions and other Soviet aircraft are ranging far and wide over the area around and behind the German lines.