STALIN ORDERS ATTACK

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23748, 21 September 1942, Page 5

STALIN ORDERS ATTACK

TRIBUTE TO RUSSIAN

SPIRIT

COMMENT ON ALLIED TASK (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 19. The Russian High Command, of which Stalin is supreme head, has ordered every Russian unit defending Stalingrad to go over to the offensive. The order stated: “Every hillock regained gains time; every day gained may determine the ultimate issue of the battle of Stalingrad.” After this order Russian tanks and infantry assumed the offensive in two neighbouring sectors, while the Germans were attacking another point. One Russian tank unit destroyed 48 German anti-tank guns, four tanks, 10 trench mortars, and nearly 1000 Germans in three successive attacks which opened a path for the Russian infantry. “Stalin’s order to the defenders of Stalingrad, to attack, coming at a time when the Russians are making a stand in the outskirts of Stalingrad, Is a particularly impressive example of the spirit with which the Russians are inspired. Nor can the exhortation be dismissed as the mere gallant defiance of desperate men,” says “The Times.” “There are many points on the bit-teriy-disputed Russian front where defence is locally conducted by highspirited counter-attacks." “The Times” says: “The conquest of Stalingrad is the beginning rather than the end of the preliminary phase—the establishment of a German position in eastern Europe so firm that behind it the main power of Germany can be diverted to the west. The valour of the Russian defence continues to delay

GENERAL VON KLEIST KILLED

COMMANDER OF TANK ARMY

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. Sept. 20, The death of General von Kleist, commander of the Ist German Tank Army, is officially announced irom Moscow. He felt to the bullet of a Soviet rifleman. General von Kleist, who was 51 years of age, was a professional soldier. He led the German columns which captured Belgrade, and when the Russian campaign opened was the first German general to cross the Russian front. He was defeated at Rostov at the end of November last year, and was subsequently reported to have been dismissed. He was recalled earlier this year, and led the German forces which broke through at Rostov. Moscow also reports the death of two Russian generals, both of them artillery officers.

that, but only a supreme effort by the western Allies, enabling them to strike with full power before the German armies now engaged in Russia can turn to meet them, can prove that Marshal von Bock has lost his race, and that the heroes of Stalingrad have not shed their blood in vain.” The “Yorkshire Post” says; “Stalin’s order emphasises that every hillock regained wins time that may decide the issue of the battle. After the heroic defence of Moscow and Leningrad last year, every Russian knows he may still win Stalingrad. Already by their stubborn defence of the city they have lessened this year’s threat to Moscow and Leningrad, and made the conquest of the Caucasus this winter unlikely.’’ The German southern drive has lost 1,300,000 men killed, and also 3390 tanks, about 4000 guns, and 4000 aeroplanes. said M. Fedofeyev, deputy-pro-paganda chief of the Communist Party, in a broadcast. He added: “The Red Army can hold, rout, and throw back the Germans, who are putting in not only their main forces, but all their reserves. They have built up their forces in south Russia by seriously weakening their armies in the occupied countries. Germany has reached her extreme effort. Loss of initiative now would lead to a German defeat. One reason for the Germans’ temporary success is the absence of a second front.” I Second Front Urged / “Russian officers and men are asking: ’Where is the second front? What are they waiting for? Will they fight or not?”’ states lyla Ehrenburg, in a special dispatch to the British United Press from Moscow. “I talked with our airmen who have bombed Berlin and Budapest, and they said: ‘We await the British over Berlin’,’’ hr continues. “The delivery of munitions cannot compensate for the lack of a second front, if the British have not enough ships to transport, their soldiers across the narrow channel, where will they get the ships to provide arms for even a part of the Red Army’s many millions? “Fifty divisions on l the Atlantic coast would have meant more than all these shipments in the struggle for the Volga and the Caucasus. That is why a Russian lieutenant looking at ‘British Ally’ —a picture paper published here by the British—said to me: ‘This is like a picture puzzle. Where is the British Ally?’ ”