BROKEN BY RUSSIANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1942, Page 3

BROKEN BY RUSSIANS

— $ ENEMY THRUST SOUTH-WEST • OF STALINGRAD . Effort to Relieve Trapped Forces Fails SOVIET PRESSURE MAINTAINED ON CENTRAL FRONT ‘ : • SUCCESSES IN CAUCASUS AND OTHER AREAS LONDON, December .17. • Powerful attacks launched by the Germans in the Kotelnikovo area (100 mjiles south-west of Stalingrad) in an attempt to relieve the Axis forces trapped between the Don and the Volga have been well and truly broken by the Russians. The latter are now pressing on after having thrown the enemy back on the defensive in'the Kotelnikovo region. Soviet forces are rounding up parties of the retreating enemy and have captured several fortified places. Between the Don and the Volga enemy counter-attacks have failed to ease the Russian threat. It. was originally estimated that there were 22 enemy divisions in this area and hopes of their getting any relief from the south-west are now slender. • ' ■ On the central front, where fighting is difficult owing to snow, the Russians are keeping up their pressure. The enemy is counter-attacking ten and twelve times a day. Air activity is limited by the weather, but the German air force has suffered heavy losses. West of Rzhev, another enemy base has fallen to the Russians, who have also captured five villages. In the Caucasus, Russian successes are reported in the Mozdok and Nalchik areas.