RUSSIANS HOLD OFF ATTACKS

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

RUSSIANS HOLD OFF ATTACKS

Stalingrad Front

ACTION RENEWED IN NORTH (Received August 13, 11 p.m.) (N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 13. Marshal Timoshenko’s forces in front of Stalingrad are still holding fast. At Kletskaya, north-west of Stalingrad, the Russians have beaten off further strong German attacks. The German thrust here has strengthened with the arrival of more reserves. Bitter fighting is reported in the Kotelnikov area, with a stubborn battle for one populated place which has changed hands many times. No further advance by the enemy in either of these important sectors is reported officially by the Russians, states a British Official Wireless message. However, “Red Star” states that the Germans are throwing fresh troops, tanks, and aircraft into the struggle and it admits a Russian withdrawal in one place. One Soviet unit in the Kletskaya area was forced to fall back for some distance but there is no indication of any major withdrawal, and in some sectors the Russians are counterattacking, and actually have improved their positions. On the Kotelnikov front the invaders are meeting with very little success. When any enemy forces break through Russiar tanks are there to meet them.

A special German communique states: “The encirclement battle w*st of Kalach has ended. We took 35.000 prisoners and inflicted very heavy casualties. We took 57,000 prisoners in the Don bend since July 23. The Don bend battles resulted in the annihilation of the bulk of the 62nd Russian Army and major parts of the Ist Russian Tank Army. A total of 1,044,000 Russians have been captured from the beginning of the spring to the conclusion of the Don bend battle. We have captured or destroyed 6271 tanks and lOjOOO guns; shot down 5600 aeroplanes; and destroyed 432 on the ground.” , There is no evidence to confirm the German claims at Kalach or to suggest that fierce fighting has ceased on the right bank of the Don bend. A Tass Agency dispatch from the front line states that the Russians have improved their positions in the Kletskaya area. The agency adds that •violent fighting broke out in another sector south of Kletskaya, where the Russians threw back the Germans and captured an Important height. Activity in Northern Fronts On the Voronezh front the Russians have driven'the enemy from yet another position on the west bank of the Don. A German High Command communique claims that strong Russian attacks on the Voronezh, Rzhev, Ilmen, and Volkhov fronts have been driven off. The first Russian reference to any large-scale attacks north-west of Moscow is given in to-night’s communique. The Russians beat back German attempts to recapture an important position. Bitter engagements are in progress behind the German lines on the Bryansk front, where the erremy is intensifying his efforts, using many tanks to liquidate a large partisan army which is lying uncomfortably close to a vital supply route. Partisans are reported to have killed 2000 men and destroyed 19 trains in the last few days.

A message from Stockholm says that every seventh obituary notice in the German newspapers concerning deaths on the Russian front now records a second death in the family. The German authorities are renewing their efforts to restrain the insertion of obituary notices, which are limited to 25 a day in each newspaper. The Paris radio declared that Russian reserves were being brought up from the Far East and were massing between the Don and the Volga before Stalingrad. An Ankara report claims that the Russians have 60 divisions, totalling 900,000 men, stationed in the Kuibishev area. This is called the “strategic army,” and is held in readiness to be used when a most urgent crisis develops.

CANADIAN TANKS IN RUSSIA

LONDON, August 12.

Canadian Valentine tanks are doing good work in Russia, according to reports .received by the __ Canadian Deputy-Minister of Munitions and Supply. He said to-day that the tanks in some cases were in operation 40 minutes after they were landed on Russian soil. Many hundreds of Valentines had already done good work during the war and they were being sent to the battle fronts as fast as they could be turned out.

NEW INDIAN NAVAL SCHOOLS

ANTI-SUBMARINE AND TORPEDO WORK (Received August 13, 7 p.m.)

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, August 12. The Royal Indian Navy, in conjunction with the Royal Navy, is developing a new anti-submarine school in India, which will be the largest in the British 'ommonwealth outside Britain. The officer in charge will be lent from the Royal Navy and the staff will consist of officers from both the Royal Navy and the Indian Navy. Officers and men for training will be drawn from all the navies of the United Nations. Plans are being prepared by the Royal Indian Navy for a new torpedo school which, in addition to providing for torpedo instruction, will incorporate facilities for handling depth-charges, minelaying, and the disposal and maintaining of ships’ electrical equipment. These three branches have been carried on hitherto in separate establishments, but the centralisation aims at producing a steady flow of highly qualified specialists, the best of whom will be eligible for warrant and commissioned rank.

BRITISH AND U.S. TRADE UNIONS

JOINT COMMITTEE TO MEET THIS MONTH (8.0. W.) RUGBY. August 12. The newly formed British-American Trade Union Committee will meet in the United States on August 23. The British Trade Union Congress representatives will be Messrs Frank Wolstencroft (chairman), J. Marchbank (National Union of Railwaymen), H. N. Harrison (general and municipal workers), A. Conley (tailors and garden workers), and Sir Walter Citrine, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress,

List of Prisoners.—lt is announced that a full list of war prisoners and civilians in Japanese hands was not aboard the exchange ship which recently arrived at Laurence Marques. Inquiries are being made into how and when the list will be sent.— London, August 12.