NAZI CATASTROPHE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1943, Page 4

NAZI CATASTROPHE

0 —-— TREMENDOUS LOSSES AT STALINGRAD GREAT RUSSIAN FORCES NOW FREED. IMPROVEMENT IN SOVIET COMMUNICATIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 27. “Front line reports dwell on the catastrophic German losses in men, equipment and prestige by the utter collapse before Stalingrad,” says “The Times” Moscow correspondent. The enemy’s material losses are estimated to be heavier than those of the British in the evacuations from C'unkirk, Greece and Norway combined. “Maps published indicate how extensive was "the German hold on the city, and how narrow was the position which the Russians held so long. Yet, despite the precariousness of the situation, the Soviet Army’s headquarters were never moved to the east bank of the Volga, remaining in dugouts among the staff headquarters of the garrison. “Another report states that the trapped German garrison northwards ’of Stalingrad has surrendered. Germans elsewhere within the trap abandoned a hospital containing 700 wounded and men suffering from frostbite, all of whom had practically nothing to eat for several days. Fierce fighting is going on in the central sector of the Stalingrad trap, but the fate of the German group is sealed. The battered enemy remnants are being chased from houses into the open, where Red Army forces, closing in from all sides, are wiping them out. Thousands of battle-hardened Soviet troops today are preparing to move from Stalingrad to other fronts, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Crack infantry divisions, tanks and air squadrons will be flung into action on varioos fronts from Voronezh to south of Rostov, where the Red Army is steadily advancing. The victory at Stalingrad not only releases an important group of armies, but also unties the chief rail knot between the Urals and the Black Sea. Trains may be expected to run within a few days, direct from the Russian capital and from all main sources of supply to within a few miles of the active fronts. WITHOUT PRECEDENT DESTRUCTION OF GERMAN SIXTH ARMY. SOVIET AND BRITISH OPINION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) RUGBY, January 27. Last night’s special Soviet communique, announcing that the encircled enemy army in front of Stalingrad had been practically wiped out, stated that the history of warfare had never known another example of the encirclement and annihilation of such a large number cf fully-equipped regular troops. A similar opinion is expressed in London, where it is considered that the German Sixth Army was sacrificed, partly for prestige and partly as a result of miscalculation. GERMANS IN CAUCASUS MAY ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE BY SEA. CHANCE FOR RUSSIAN FLEET. (Received This Day, 11,15 a.m.) LONDON, January 27. The German armies in the Caucasus, whose retreat the Russians threaten to cut off, may attempt to escape by way of the Black Sea. Turkish reports state that all Axis ships in Turkish and Bulgarian ports have been ordered to Novorossisk, the German-held port on the Black Sea coast of Western Caucasia. This would suggest that General von List’s forces have abandoned attempts to reach Rostov. Military observers' have predicted that the speedy Russian advances through the Northern Caucasus would cut off the German line of retreat, leaving the sea as the only means of escape. If the Germans attempt to escape from Novorossisk they will run the gauntlet of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The Vichy radio today said the Germans on the southern sector of the Eastern front had begun “a methodical and orderly withdrawal.’