SOVIET LEADERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 3

SOVIET LEADERS

GENERAL ZERIENKO’S FINE RECORD IN DEFENCE OF STALINGRAD. AND SUBSEQUENT TRAPPING . OF ENEMY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 17. The Stalingrad offensive against the German “armed prisoners of war” has reduced the original opposing force of more than 200,000 to what an agency correspondent on that front describes as “a minimum of '60,000 starving, cold and sickness-ridden men.” The correspondent states that the victory is really a triumph for Col-onel-General Yerienko, the commander on the Stalingrad front, whose skill, courage and leadership converted the monstrous enemy siege of Stalingrad into grave danger for the whole of the Axis divisions. Fearless and iron-willed, he appeared at the most dangerous places at the worst periods of defence. Though wounded and still limping from a leg injury, he has continued personally to direct the operations. General Yerienko was born in ,1892. His youngest son and his own wife were killed by the Germans at the beginning of this war. He is responsible for the strategy of encircling the 22 divisions and the subsequent operations against them. General Malinovsky, commander of the Red Army driving toward Rostov between the River Sal and the Manich Canal, is a Ukrainian, aged 44, who has been a professional soldier since the civil war. He said the Germans were contesting every inch of ground in their retreat. The enemy, however, was leaving masses of equipment behind, and his transport moving west was being heavily bombed. Describing the recent operations on his part of the front, the general said the Red Army was well equipped and carefully deployed, but waited for a general offensive to get under way. Von Manstein, however, forestalled the Russian army and started his own offensive from Kotelnikovo with a force consisting of three tank and three infantry divisions. Possessing altogether 600 tanks, he aimed at joining and rescuing the Germans encircled at Stalingrad and had an initial success. General Malinovsky first retreated, waging a powerful rearguard action. Then he checked the enemy advance with a stubborn defensive battle, and ended it with a powerful counter-blow, and is continuing his advance at present with an enveloping two-wing movement, the left wing advancing along the StalingradTikhoretsk railway, while the right wing is forming a broad front against Rostov.