Apparent Stiffening Of Resistance

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23716, 14 August 1942, Page 5

Apparent Stiffening Of Resistance

MOUNTAIN FIGHTING AS NEXT STAGE

(Received August 13, 11 p.m.)

(N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 13. From the Caucasus front there have been no Russian reports of further withdrawals since the admission yesterday that Soviet troops had fallen back to new positions in the Cherkesk area. Fighting continues for the Maikop oilfield. At Krasnodar the Russians are putting up a strong resistance to German attempts to cross the Kuban river. The position in this sector remains serious as the Germans throw in strong forces in their attempt to reach Novorossiisk and the Black Sea.

Reports from Moscow give gome indications that Russian resistance in the Caucasus has 'become more effective in the last 24 hours. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press emphasises that the next phase in the Caucasus battles—a mountain campaign—is yet in its early stages, and there is still ample time for the Russians to halt their long retreat. He and other correspondents look hopefully toward indications of stiffening Russian resistance in the Cherkesk area, where the Russian High Command is believed to be throwing in some hardy Caucasian reserves.

“Red Star,” commenting on the Caucasus fighting, says: “Temporary Russian misfortune has not weakened our faith, or onr strength, or the possibility of defeating the enemy.”

There is no diminution of the intensity of the fighting in the Krasnodar and Maikop regions, where the Russians are holding out desperately under a terrific German armoured onslaught. The unending battles here have bean costly to both sides, but German reinforcements are rolling forward in such strength that it seems that the Russians must again be compelled to fall back. Moscow reports that the Russians are falling back along the Kuban valley, destroying everything useful to the enemy, and leaving every town and village in ruins. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” forecasts a German effort to cross the Caucasus ranges via the Mamison Pass running south-west to Kutais, because this rout? leads past the world’s greatest single source of manganese, in the Chiatura district. Manganese is needed in Germany more than oil. Latest Information shows that the German steel industry is almost desperate owing to lack of manganese. The Moscow correspondent of the tws Chronicle” reports heavy fight • -ip the Maikop oil district and OxCherkesk, 100 miles ud the Kujriver, south-east of Armavir. The Russians are now able to take full advantage of the difficult country into

which the enemy is attempting to penetrate. As a result of the Russian operations at one place east of Cherkesk, the Germans suffered severely and were forced to fall back. The Russians are defending the line of the Kuban river round Krasnodar against superior enemy forces. A message from Moscow states that they are battering at the German wedge which they have cut off at the base. A message from Moscow states that desperate air battles are raging over the Caucasus front. Junkers transport machines are rushing up troops and materials. The Russians are taking a heavy toll of these transports and they are also plastering the Germans with fire bombs, which set the woods ablaze, trapping concentrations of men and material. One report states that the whole Kuban valley Is ablaze. It is not yet apparent whether the Soviet Command will be able, with the forces available, to make a stand covering the naval base of Novorossiisk and the naval port of Tuapse, the defence of which wopld extend their line by scores of miles, A German High Command communique reports that the Germans are advancing further into the Caucasus. Rumanians took the town of Slavlanskaya, 60 miles from Novorossiisk. and inland from the Taman Peninsula.

SURVIVORS FROM H.M.S. EAGLE

GERMAN ACCOUNT OF SINKING

BRITISH CONVOYS IN MEDITERRANEAN (Received August 13, 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 12. There are 930. survivors from the British aircraft-carrier Eagle, which was sunk by a U-boat in the Mediterranean. They include Captain L. B, Mclntosh, who commanded the Eagle, 67 officers, and 862 ratings. The normal complement of the Eagle was 748, so that, even allowing for war-time expansion of the crew, the figure of 930 survivors must represent a very high proportion of the crew.

A German communique states that a U-boat hit the Eagle with four torpedoes and sank her. The Eagle was part of a stroqgly escorted convoy in the western Mediterranean. The Berlin radio has reported that since the evening of August 11 strong German and Italian air formations and submarine forces have been fighting large British convoys In the western Mediterranean which are escorted by the bulk of the British Mediterranean Fleet.

U.S. NAVY BUREAU OF SHIPS

INQUIRY INTO CHARGES OF NEGLIGENCE (Received August 13, 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 12. Senator David Walsh, chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, has declined a request by the Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Frank Knox) for an investigation of charges that the Navy Bureau of Ships has been guilty of negligence or wilful misconduct. Senator Walsh said the Navy should conduct its own inquiry.

[Negligence and wilful misconduct by officers of the United States Navy Bureau of Ships were alleged last week by Senator H. S. Truman, chairman of the Senate Committee investigating the conduct of the war, in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Frank Knox). He alleged that the Bureau of Ships had insisted on using ship models of its own design in spite of repeated failures, and had acted with bias and prejudice in cancelling a contract nor 200 Liberty ships with the Higgins firm of New Orleans, ftrfnator Truman said the Navy had /in.isted tens of millions in developing

FEWER NORWEGIAN SHIPS LOST

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, August 12. The losses suffered by the Norwegian Mercantile marine in July were less than half those suffered in the best of the six previous months, according to the Norwegian Minister of Shipping (Major Arne Lund), who has just returned from America. Major Lund said that provisional estimates, of shipping losses for the last month made by the United States authorities showed that there had been a considerable reduction. The American authorities believed that they had gone a long way towards combating the U-boat menace on the east coast.

Name of Infant Prince.—The Duke and Duchess of Kent have decided that their youngest child shall be known as Prince Michael, and not as Prince George, which they originally intended,—London, August 12.

FIGHTING ROUND LINCHWAN

CHINESE REPULSE ATTACKS LONDON, August 12. The Chinese High Command reports continued fighting around Linchwan, the Japanese base in Kiangsi Province. Japanese attacks in the western suburbs were repulsed. The Japanese garrison at Chuhsien, which received 2000 reinforcements and has pushed northward under cover of aeroplanes, has now been engaged by- the Chinese. The Chungking correspondent of the British United Press reports that Allied aeroplanes, presumably American, bombed Formosa to-day. ' The Czechoslovak Government m exile has conferred the Czech Croix d_e Guerre upon Marshal Chiang Kaishek, with a citation expressing admiration for China’s long resistance to the Japanese aggressors.

GERMANS KILLED IN FRANCE

SABOTAGE CONTINUES (Received August 13, 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 12. persons attacked with grenades 60 German airmen who were exercising in the Jean Bouin Stadium, killing two, seriously injuring eight, and slightly injuring 10. , The attack was the climax to a week of intense anti-German activity and sabotage, including the dynamiting of lock gates which blocked the Nord Canal at Gergnier. The British United Press says that police discovered 451b of dynamite near Clermont-Ferrand, and it is suggested, but not confirmed, that it was for dynamiting M. Laval’s chateau at Chateldon, 30 miles away. Police leave has been suspended in this area. The Germans have sent 50 persons to a concentration camp after acts of sabotage in various towns in Hainault Province, including the destruction of electricity installations which caused stoppages in factories. All radio sets in one town have been confiscated, and entertainments within a four miles radius of the town have been closed down.

NEW ZEALANDERS IN MADAGASCAR

SERVICE DURING BRITISH LANDINGS (Special Correspondent) (N.Z.p.A.) LONDON, August 12. Three New Zealand telegraphists who followed the course of the British occupation of Courier Bay and Diego Suarez, in Madagascar, by the wireless communications which they handled, are now on leave in London. Thev are I. R. Forester (Wanganui), J. F. Ingham (Petone), and L. A. Powell (Christchurch). Forester said: ‘‘We spent three days in Courier Bay and three in Diego Suarez. _ .... ‘‘We arrived in the bay m bright moonlight just after midnight in a ship which put landing parties ashore, but being busy handling wireless communications between the ship and the shore we did not see any action except when two French aeroplanes machinegunned the beaches. Later we spent three weeks at Port Elizabeth, where we found that New Zealanders were most popular.” . The three men have been trained for co-operating with commando units.