SERIOUS CONCERN
MANIFESTED IN BERLIN SPOKESMAN TALKS OF YEAR'S MAIN BATTLE. SOVIET ADVANCE OF 100 MILES . IN A WEEK. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 22. The Red Army has continued to advance in the week-old offensive on the middle Don front. Last night’s Soviet communique said that Russian forces on the central Don front advanced another 20 miles, capturing more towns and villages, and taking more prisoners and war material. The Germans are reported to be rushing up fresh reserves from behind the battlefield, and sending them into furious counter-attacks in a bid to stop the rot, but- correspondents say that the powerful Soviet blows are growing more effective, and some units have advanced nearly 100 miles in the week. Some islands of resistance are being smashed or by-passed by the strong Soviet formations, who are said to be applying new methods based on their experience in the campaign of last winter. The German High Command spokesman, General Dietmar, broadcasting over the Berlin radio, declared that Russian attacks in the Terek area of the Caucasus, and on the Kalmuk steppes, are directly connected with the Stalingrad fighting, which is also connected with the Russian attacks in the great Don bend. The offensive in the Rzhev-Kalinin-Tpropets area is geographically separate, but by no means unconnected. “These attacks on the whole farflung field must be considered as a single large counter-offensive and the year’s main battle,” he said. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that unless the Russians on the middle Don front are halted within the next few clays the sole salvation of the German forces and the remnant of the Italian forces appears to be a further withdrawal from the Don bend, either toward the Donetz Basin or southward by railwayless routes towards the lower Don. It can
scarcely be expected that the Russians will be able to capture Millerovo without a hard major battle, which is almost certain. FIERCE AIR FIGHTING. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that now the wind has blown off fog which concealed the movements of the Russians at the beginning of the offensive from the middle Don, fierce aerial battles arc occurring. The Luftwaffe has flung in massive fleets of lighters and bombers in the effort to check the advance, but the Red Air Force is also strongly concentrated at this point, and has sufficient planes to put up a powerful umbrella over the Red Army troops. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that as the jaws close on Millerovo the Germans are leaving huge quantities of tanks and guns in their hasty withdrawal. Increased activity by General von Hoth against the Russian ring between the Den and the Volga has the symptoms of desperate improvisation. Von Heth had doubtless' expected relief and reinforcements, but Moscow correspondents report that his army is being slowly pushed back from the- Don elbow. The Russians in Stalingrad city are still advancing, but only in yards.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1942, Page 3
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485SERIOUS CONCERN Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1942, Page 3
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