Stalingrad Battle

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23750, 23 September 1942, Page 3

Stalingrad Battle

SLOW PROGRESS OF ENEMY

tN.Z, Press Association—Copyright.) H p.m.) LONDON, September 22. / Moscow reports state that German attempts to smash ; Cough the streets of Stalingrad and take key buildings have been repulsed. In one part the Germans met an impenetrable barrier before which 40 of their tanks were smashed before they retreated. During the last two days the Germans have been hounded out ot street after street, and nowhere have thev made any perceptible progress.

The Moscow correspondent of the “News Chronicle” says it is too early yet to draw any conclusions from the check suffered by the German forces in Stalingrad. The Germans may be holding off for a new thrust after reorganising. One report says the German infantry has lost its striking power.

Stalingrad’s heroic defenders are still grimly fighting back and still slaughtering thousands of Invaders, but the arc round the battered city is steadily if slowly tightening. The whole town is now a front line. A thick pall of smoke, encrimsoned by the glow of dozens of fires, hangs over scenes of unbelievable carnage and destruction. Ravaged by ceaseless German air raids, whole streets have been churned into piles of shattered debris, and Marshal von Bock has now brought up his heaviest siege guns, which are shelling the defenders with deadly precision.

The Axis forces in some sectors are bein? cheeked and occasionally thrown back, but the amazing determination and gallantry of the defenders is apparently not enough to delay more than temporarily the advancing enemy hordes, whose territorial gains are now nearly measurable in yards, for each of which the Russians are exacting a fearful toll.

Monday’s midnight Soviet communique states: “Our forces to-day engaged the enemy in fierce fighting in the Stalingrad and Mozdok areas.” The Moscow correspondent of "The Times," although admitting that the situation remains critical both in and round Stalingrad, maims that the last 48 hours (up to Monday night) have seen a definite check administered to the investing forces. The Russian defence line is most staunchly held south-west of the city. Dispatches from Stalingrad on Monday night stated that the Germans in the north-western suburbs were being thrown back. Strategic heights commanding the centre of the city were recaptured after a six hours’ battle. The Germans in the 24 hours (up to Monday night) had not appreciably advanced anywhere. “The Russian position at Stalingrad is generally better than most observers expected at the middle of last week.’’ says the Stockholm correspondent of "The Times.” “The German tinge's which penetrated north-westward of Stalingrad fared badly. Some of them were amputated and others at ieast chocked.” Most of the women of Stalingrad and ' ell the children have now been moved to safety across the Volga. The only women remaining in Stalingrad are nurses and doctors, whose heroism . under the continuous deluge of fire ) .patches that of the combatants. Every * V'hle-bodied man is now under arms, manning a defence line consisting of a network of strongpoints and linked knots of resistance. The Russian forces have lost a few rubble-filled streets, but in the north and north-west n f the city other streets have been won back by Soviet units. The fighting becomes more intense every hour, and the Germans are throwing in masses of tanks, aeroplanes. guns, and infantry, but without much effect on the defenders. Desperate Russian Resistance

also strongly counter-attacking from the region of Krasnoarmeisk. “We are fighting in the east the greatest military Power in the world,” said Colonel Dictmar, a German military spokesman, on the Berlin radio He added that no other foe had managed the balance of the fighting to his own advantage as did the Soviet and the power of resistance of the individual Russian soldier was incredible His determination to fight to the end was very strong. Unexpected Russian tactics had imposed a severe strain on the nerves of German commanders and troops. German Claims in Caucasus

In the Caucasus a fierce battle is taking place 50 miles from the Grozny! oilfields, where German reinforcements are now reported to be in action. A supplement to the Soviet communique reports that the Germans captured a height and an unnamed locality. A German communique states that the Germans on the Terek front stormed and captured the towns ot Terek and Vladimirovsk. Russian sources do not refer to these claims.

The Germans are still apparently firmly held south-east of Novorossiisk. The Russians arc fighting defensive actions against mixed German and Rumanian forces.

The Moscow radio reported that a Soviet submarine returned from a (patrol in the Baltic, during which it sank four enemy transports, totalling 42.000 tons, and an enemy destroyer. Voronezh Offensive Develops

The scale of the Russian Voronezh offensive is increasing and developing with great violence. The Russians are employing a powerful force of artillery and many aeroplanes, and are gradually smashing through the fortifications which the Germans began to construct immediately it was seen that the weight of their July offensive was checked. The Germans are rushing up reinforcements, making a hasty attempt to stem the Russian advance on a broad front.

Stressing the desperate resistance of the Stalingrad garrison, the Berlin correspondent of the. Stockholm “Aftonbladet” says the Russians are pouring boiling oil from the upper windows of .the houses on the Germans. The Moscow radio says the battles in Stalingrad's streets were at their fiercest on September 21, when, after an artillery duel, there was hand-to-hand fighting, in which the Russians by nightfall had cleared the enemy from several more streets. Every room of every house has become a battlefield, and the staircases are strewn with German corpses. The Paris radio on Monday night for the first time announced that a heavy Russian artillery barrage was stemming the German advance at Stalingrad The Moscow radio reported that a Russian armoured train entered a German-occupied station at Stalingrad last night and killed 200 Germans and destroyed 13 tanks. The Germans claimed on Monday that they had thrust deeper into the southern defences of Stalingrad, smashing 17 strongpoints. ..German newspapers are now referring to heavy German casualties, whereas the latest comment from Russia is confidently toned. The northerly relief” attacks, which are admitted in Berlin, are being made from outside the German arc from the vicinity of llovlya and Dubovka. The Russians are

The approach of winter finds the Russians more heavily engaged along a more extensive front than any time since the outbreak of the war. The Russian aggressiveness between the Don and the Neva is unquestionably trying the nerves of the German High Command. The Russian offensive has nowhere made impressive territorial progress, but it is keeping every sector alert, and the most frequent German press complaint is that the German soldier is unable to get adequate sleep. A Berlin spokesman said the Germans in the Rzhev sector have been obliged to meet more than 300 distinct attacks since the beginning of September. Russian pressure here relaxed during the week-end. probably in preparation for further blows. The Russian thrust at Sinyavino, on the Volkhov, has also paused for breath. The Germans are frantically trying to strengthen the threatened and narrowed isthmus between Schluesselburg and the main Baltic army. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says: "Probably for the first time since the outbreak of war the question of reinforcing the Sinyavino sector is causing the German command difficulty, doubtless because Stalingrad absorbs all fresh reserves, and the riskiness of weakening any sector to an extent which might facilitate a disastrous Russian break through.”