RUSSIAN GAIN AT VORONEZH

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 250, 21 July 1942, Page 5

RUSSIAN GAIN AT VORONEZH

Stubborn Retreat In South LONDON, July 20. The Russians in the Voronezh area are straining every nerve to throw back the Germans across the Don, and the enemy on this front is definitely pinned down. It is another story south of Millerovo, where the Germans hold the upper hand in spite of the stiffening of the Russian resistance. After 24 hours of hard fighting the Red Army has seized an important German bridgehead across the Don, due west of Voronezh. South of the town the Germans are reported to have been driven back to the riverbank. A small Russian force has crossed to the Don’s western bank, where it is now fighting. . . The position in the battle further south remains grave. A Soviet communique last night announced that the Russians evacuated .the Donetz industrial centre of Voroshilovgrad under orders from the High Command. Today’s communique reports a further hard-fought withdrawal south of Millerovo, which is the railway centre 150' miles north of Rostov. German paratroops behind the battle-front have been

wiped out. The Soviet Army newspaper “Red Star” says: “The German offensive has intensified the danger overhanging our Motherland. “The Germans are attempting to overthrow our armies and break through to the plain between the Don and the Volga. They are attempting to drive on to Rostov, capture the Donetz Basin, and threaten the North Caucasus and the Industrial heart of the Volga—-Stalingrad. “The battle in the south is decisive. It will increase our danger tenfold, or it will halt the enemy, inflicting such a blow that it will clear the road for our victory.”

A large area south of Millerovo is now the scene of unabating battle, says the Moscow correspondent of “The Times.” A feature of the fighting has been the rapidity with which the Germans have been regrouped and reinforced. The German Command is apparently determined to avoid the weakness that was revealed last year when the Soviet counter-attacks found the advanced German units too weak to withstand the pressure. Trains, trucks, and transport aircraft are being used to rush the German troops and supplies up to Millerovo. The correspondent adds: “The reverse in the south should not blind us to the major success the Red Army Is slowly and determinedly gaining at Voronezh. There the Russians have stemmed two armies and live to six tank divisions, which would have created a very grave position iu central Russia if they had been permitted to advance eastward in the past 10 days.” Vichy radio declared that German vanguards pierced the outer defences of Rostov after German parachutists caused destruction in the rear of the Russian troops. Emergency Supply Effort. With the fighting in the North Caucasian region hourly reaching new heights of ferocity, the battle has spread far beyond the immediate area of the ground fighting. Both the Germans and the Russians are relentlessly attacking the supply lines immediately behind the front and sometimes deep in the rear. The Russians are using every possible conveyance to bring up reinforcements of men and material while simultaneously keeping the central and northern fronts supplied with oil. Tankers from thp Caucasian oilfields are sailing with their decks level with the water and the merchant fleets of the Volga River and the Caspian Sea are similarly loaded to the maximum. Tugs, barges, paddle-steamers, motorvessels —every vessel old or new—are ferrying troops, tanks, ammunition and food for the Russian forces on the lower Don and trains, lorries and carts of all kinds have also been pressed into service. The Luftwaffe is doing its utmost to frustrate this mighty effort, and its main blitzes in the weekend were directed against Rostov and the environs and also the important railway junctions of I’avorino and Sbakbtui. a large force of paratroops also at lacked Shiklilui. According to reports from Stockholm, the Germans having by-passed Kanienskoye, have now reached Sliakhtui, which is on the railway, 55 miles north-east of Rostov and is the main anthracite producing area in Russia. A great tank battle raged here through last night. Further progress in this area would obviously make imminent a linking-up of the German forces driving from Taganrog with those based on Millero vo and Voroshilovgrad, in the north and north-west. Gain by Russians. ‘The initiative at Voronezh is now entirely in Russian hands,” said the Moscow “Izvestia. “The Germans are trying to rush .reinforcements across the Don, but Russian artillery wiped out a whole regiment of infantry which was attempting to cross south of Voronezh.” 'l'lie “Pravda” says: “The Germans in (lie Voronezh area ami south of Voronezh, arc being slowly but continually pressed back westward. “Tiie Germans are laying minefields, (browing up barbed-wire entanglements, cutting roads, turning every stone house into a strong point, and burying tanks In the ground. The Russians (lung them out of three inhabited localities in one sector on the eastern bank of the Don.”