BIG RESERVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1943, Page 3

BIG RESERVES

AND INCREDIBLE MASSES OF EQUIPMENT MARSHALLED BY RUSSIANS IN CAUCASIA. ADVANCE IN THE FOULEST WEATHER. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON. January 14. The Berlin correspondent of the Swedish newspaper .“Allehanda” says that the Russians in the Caucasus c.re marshalling an appalling number of reserves, with powerful tanks and elite troops supplied with incredible masses of equipment which was 'produced in the factories behind the Urals and overseas. Dispatches from the lower Don and Caucasian front state that the Russian advance is being made in the foulest weather. Rain and melting snow have caused a vast expanse of sticky mud, and. the tanks and vehicles are ploughing along roads which are a foot deep in mud, while the infantry, marching beside the roads, sometimes sink in the mud knee-deep. Sappers and engineers are labouring day and night to. keep the lines of communication open, and are particularly working on the railways, which the Germans had extensively demolished. The Russians in the Caucasus are being greatly aided by the capture of hundreds of hardy Italian mules, which sure-footed- , ly carry great burdens up and down the greasy slopes and splash through foaming torrents. The Russians are making new attacks on the Hungarians and Germans .on a 50-mile .front .south of Millerovo. Berlin admits a Russian break-through in one sector. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the enemy casualties in the Stalingrad battle increase daily as the Russian defenders, striking out from the city, reduce the ranks of the surrounded Germans. The German High Command states that the Russian attacks in Stalingrad went on all night long in a heavy blizzard. Heavy fighting was proceeding at dawn. VITAL STAGE APPROACHED IN SOVIET OFFENSIVE STEADY PROGRESS TOWARDS ROSTOV. DECLINE IN ENEMY MORALE. (Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, January 15. The Red armies are approaching a vital stage in their offensive, as, in the teeth of stubborn resistance, they steadily battle towards Rostov, which the Germans must hold in order to save the main body of their armies southward of the Don. Moscow correspondents emphasise the persistence with which the Germans are flinging in counter-attacks, but refer to a lowering of the Germans’ morale when they are driven from positions. General Rokossovsky’s tanks and infantry have captured ten more townships in the past 24 hours, costing the Germans 2000 killed and at least fifty tanks, and are now about 60 miles from Rostov. Simultaneously the Russian advance on the hundred-mile Caucasus front is increasing. The four columns driving down the Rostov-Baku Railway or parallel to it, have all made progress.