HITLER'S DESPERATE EFFORT TO BREAK IN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 237, 7 October 1942, Page 3

HITLER'S DESPERATE EFFORT TO BREAK IN

BATTLE AMID RUINS

Soviet Creating Conditions For Major Nazi Defeat

United Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1.30 p.*m. LONDON, Oct. 6.

The great German assault against the workers' settlement in northwestern Stalingrad has now raged for more than 60 hours, but so far has failed to gain ground. The Times Stockholm correspondent says the present crescendo of the German onslaught apparently is the first direct result of Hitler's emphatic promise last week that Stalingrad would be captured. The intervening days have been utilised to gather energies for a supreme effort. The Germans opened their heaviest artillery barrage early on Sunday, after which a concentration of 30,000 men, with a spearhead, of 100 tanks, was set in movement.

The Moscow newspaper Izvestia says no such battle has been seen on the Stalingrad front for a long time. Waves of German planes bombed the Russian positions and thousands of shells and mines were pumped into the city, but the defenders rose from the ruins and overwhelmed wave after wave of German infantry. The fight was continued all night under flares. The battle was unabated on Monday, and during Monday night the Russians struck savage counter-blows. The battle was continued this morning with the same violence.

Gerniaiis' Bloody Losses

Pravda's correspondent at. Stalingrad declared: "The strength of our resistance, plus the Germans' bloody losses, is creating the conditions for another major defeat of Hitler's armies."

Marshal Timoshenko's relief drives from the north-west and south-west, meanwhile, are progressing cautiously in the face of fierce German counter attacks. The Germans are parachuting many snipers on the open steppes in an attempt to hold up the drive from the north-west, but the Russians, pressing forward, have occupied a hill from which German artiliery was operating. The Vichy radio declared that the Russians have launched a new offensive south of Stalingrad, and that the Russians in Stalingrad have received still more reinforcements.

The Germans have resumed massed bombing raids against blocks of the city selected for "saturation." The Luftwaffe's present aim apparently is to blast a path through the defences to the Volga docks, so that tanks and infantry following up will be enabled to cut up resisting sections and then clean them up piece by piece. The steadiness of the Russians is not affected. Thev continue to defend each block of'buildings, every house and every courtyard.

Distinguished Soviet speakers, including the Communist propaganda chief, M. Alexandrov, the historian, Professor Tarle, and a leading publicist, M. Yaroslavsky, have expressed their confidence that Stalingrad will stand, says the Moscow correspondent of the Times. These are men who choose their words carefully. Significance is also attached to the arrival of a political commissar with quantities of comforts for the troops. However, adds the correspondent, there are no grounds for complacency. The Russian Press does not mince matters in its daily reminders of the gravity of the Soviet position. The workers are being spurred to even greater efforts. Caucasus Worry Germans A Berlin broadcast last night made it clear that the situation in the Caucasus is regarded in Germany with misgiving, says the British official wireless. A German general said the mountains were still in the hands of the Russians, who had established a strong, tenacious and numerically superior army there.

Emphasising the difficulties of the German troops, the general said they often lacked water for men, animals and tanks. This fighting could only be compared with battles in jungles or in glacier regions.

Major Zemlyanov, of the Red Air Force, states that a unit of 20 Hurricanes commanded by Major Panov in two months has destroyed 83 planes for the loss of four Russian pilots and 10 Hurricanes. He says the fuel economy, high fire-power, speed and manoeuvrability of the Hurricanes make them splendid escorts for front-line bombers. They have proved their worth in dozens of combats over the Russian front.