New German Thrust

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23746, 18 September 1942, Page 5

New German Thrust

ENEMY SUPERIOR IN NUMBERS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, September 17. "' To-day's Soviet communique reports hand-to-hand fighting on the north-western outskirts of Stalingrad, which is now gravely threatened by a new German thrust. This is the nrst time the Russians have officially admitted that the Germans have reached the outskirts of the city. The communique describes how groups of German tommy-gunners who broke through were repulsed. Moscow radio, however, says the German advance continues. The situation is tense and the fighting is bloody. When German forces penetrated the outskirts of the city yesterday every window and attic in the houses became a firing point in a violent to and fro battle. The fighting is desperate to withstand the pressure of numerically superior enemy forces. For the moment the German threats to the city from the west and south-west have not increased, and the communique reports that enemy tank and infantry attacks in these sectors were repulsed. Correspondents state, however, that the Germans in these sectors are being reinforced, and it is expected that there will soon be a renewal of fierce fighting. No new developments are reported from the Mozdok area of the Caucasus, where the Germans are thrusting towards the Groznyi oilfields. The communique states that enemy attacks have been repelled.

A supplement to Wednesday’s midnight communique refers to wedges driven by the enemy in the Soviet positions. These wedges were widened in subsequent fighting. The Moscow radio on Wednesday night declared: "The Stalingrad defenders are repelling the enemy.” Axis Claims According to Axis sources, the German advance has continued in spite of heavy rain. A German communique states that important ground was gained in the Stalingrad .front after bitter fighting. The Paris radio says the Germans have passed the central railway station and are now in possession of three-quarters of Stalingrad. German reports, via Switzerland, claim, that Stalingrad should fall within three days. The Vichy radio says the Russians will apparently be unable to prolong their resistance beyond a few days because the German frontal attack has split the defenders. Both parts of the Russian forces are fighting with their backs to the Volga, without direct communication with each other. 1 Russian official sources will not . admit any such sweeping advance. All Axis reports agree that this is the “final phase.” There is apparently no end to the men, tanks, and aeroplanes which the Germans caa and obviously will throw in. According to one message from Moscow, the Germans have more than 20 divisions massed in the Stalingrad area. They are reinforced constantly to maintain numerical superiority over the defence, whose reinforcements are not nearly on the same scale. Wedges Driven Into Defences “Red Star” says the Germans in two sectors west" of the city succeeded'in driving a wedge into the Russian positions. Heavy fighting developed, and the Germans in most places were forced to withdraw. Groups of isolated tommy-gunners penetrated deeply into the Russian lines, but most of them were accounted for. The Germans south-west of Stalingrad, with large air-supported forces, drove a wedge into the defenders’ positions. The -Russians immediately launched counter-attacks from several directions, causing the Germans to withdraw. According to ‘‘Red Star” the Luftwaffe is the main driving force. Where their tanks fail, the German bombers sometimes succeed in effecting a break in the Soviet lines. The Germans are not taking a step without aircraft. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says a major disaster was averted south-west of Stalingrad, where the Russians tenaciously held their positions after German tanks and infantry had driven deeply into their lines following a terrific air bombardment.- The Russians clung to the German flanks, anti-tank units hammered the tanks, and others hacked at the infantry until the remnants of the attacking force were pushed back to their original positions. The Russians completely restored the situation in the south-west area after a day of terrific fighting. The Germans pushed shock troops into an area close to the city and positions of great tactical importance changed hands repeatedly. The Germans at noon launched a smashing air attack, in which 500 high explosive bombs were dropped on a small area. The Germans pierced the city’s outskirts and appeared to be well on the way to consolidating their newly-won positions, but they wilted under desperate Russian flank attacks and fell back to their starting point. Earlier Attacks The Germans on Tuesday flung In several fresh regiments of infantry and several hundred tanks against a narrow sector west of the city. The Russians met them and beat them back. To-day the Russians are battered and bloodied, but they are still hitting back with sacrificial determination. This German attack was one of the largest so far launched, and it was intended to cut to the city’s heart with a frontal assault. Panzers bit into the Russian defences time and again, but the Russians counter-attacked and flung them back to their original positions. The Germans regrouped and tried again, but they came up against a guards trench mortar unit which put over a hail of concentrated fire. Forty German tanks were set ablaze, and a thousand German troops were mown down. According to the latest Russian dispatches. it is thought that the German time-table may well have been upset by the extraordinary Russian resistance, which might well not have been expected to equal that of the fortresslike Sebastopol. The Russian resistance is an epic. The skill of the planning of the defence and the courage and vigour of its execution are great, put they are surpassed bjl the unbelievable spirit of each Red Army man, who. defying the weariness of weeks of battering in the war’s greatest blood bath, daily repeats the miracle of a new effort when none seems humanly possible. The Caucasus Fronts There have been no fresh developments in the Caucasus, where the German drives against Groznyi and towards Tuapse are held up while thousands of civilians are throwing up defence works: The Russians report that the railway town of Nalchik, in the eastern Caucasus, is still in Russian hands, but the inhabitants are preparing for attacks Nalchik "has a population of 18,000 and is 30 miles south-west of Prokhladnaya. This is the first news from this area since the Germans arrived at Prokhadnaya. It is revealed that the Russians in this sector have retaken a settlement. South of Novorossisk Russian resistance appears to be considerable, as it is also in the Mozdok area, where the Germans are in some strength. Moscow radio reports fierce fighting for roads, passes, J snd mountain heights

' T in the north Caucasus. Throughout the mountain range* Soviet engineers, meanwhile, are building obstructions and traps and fortifying roads, paths, and bridges. They are also boring tunnels and deepening the mountain rivers to a depth of 10 feet so that when the bridges are? blown up lorries will be unable to ford them. The mountains are said to be infested with engineers all of whom are, in addition, marksmen, snipers, sub-machine gunners, or anti-tank riflemen, who- are capable of breaking through in case of encirclement; . , ... »..■.• . Northern Fighting In ,th,c .Rzhev area Soviet troops ■captured .a fortified line, and killed 1000 Germans. A Moscow message says the Russians are -. incessantly attacking north-west of Rzhev in attempts to extend their bridgehead across the Volga. North of the Stalingrad front the Russians have made some progress from the new bridgeheads west of the Don below Voronezh. Germans and Rumanians attacked the old Russian bridgeheads without success. Moscow reports that five Axis attacks were broken up south of Voronezh, and 20 tanks were destroyed. Reports from Stockholm say that the Russians advancing from the Volkhov area, and also troops of the Leningrad garrison pushing eastwards from the city, have alb the-German-held neckbetween them under fire. Shells from Russian long-range guns are falling in Schluesselburg. A Finnish communique reports that the Russians reached the advanced Finnish lines in the northern sector of the Karelian Isthmus, but were driven off. Fighting continues.