SURVEY OF FRONTS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 95, 16 January 1943, Page 5

SURVEY OF FRONTS

Possible Finale Outside Stalingrad

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 14.

The Russian offensive at the moment apparently is making the most progress in the central Caucasus. Continuing their advance on a broad front of about 100 miles, the Russians have covered about 40 miles since crossing the Kuma River, and are now only about 60 miles from Voroshilovsk, an important centre in the northern Caucasus. They are thus, in this direction, only about 200 miles from the lower Don and Rostov. The German communiques refer to Russian offensives in the Voronezh and Leningrad areas, which are not mentioned in the latest Soviet communiques. The Germans persist, too, in describing fighting in and about Velikiye Luki as if the place had never been captured from them. The view taken in London is that they may hope to regain the town so that the necessity of admitting its loss would not arise. Formidable Defence.

The German resistance is undoubtedly stubborn and’formidable in the region of the Sal and Manych Rivers, 50 to 100 miles east of Rostov. They are fighting hard to prevent the development of any Russian advance which would threaten the vitally important railway junction of Tikhoretsk. The Russians coming down the railway from Zimovniki are still 100 miles north-west of Tikhoretsk. The news that the Germans are being ejected from the western suburbs of Stalingrad may indicate that the Russians think the time has approached when the encircled army is sufficiently weakened by weeks of hardship and strain for its final destruction to be possible. No Russian communique, however, reports more than intense local fighting.