ARMIES INTACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 17, 20 July 1942, Page 5

ARMIES INTACT

SOVIET FIGHTING ON

NAZIS RETREATING IN NORTH (Rec. noon.) RUGBY, July 19. Messages from Moscow show that the continued severity of the enemy pressure, though still keeping- the situation critical, especially in the south, has in no way broken the Russian resistance anywhere. Appealing to the Red Army to exert the utmost effort to halt the Germans in the south, "Red Star" says that if the enemy achieves his aim there the threat to the Fatherland will increase tenfold. "Can we hold the enemy?" asks "Red Star." "Absolutely, yes. Defenders of the Soviet south can and must find the strength to stem the Germans and bleed them white. This is demanded by the Fatherland, the fate of which is being decided on the battlefield." FURY UNABATED. The fighting in the Voronezh area continues with unabatdd fury. The Red Army is slowly recapturing lost ground in" spite of the savage resistance of the Germans, who continually bring up fresh men and tanks and face enormous losses. The Germans are feverishly erecting fortifications between the Don and Voronezh Rivers and are digging tank traps to protect their flanks. . Simultaneously, the Germans are trying to bring up reinforcements across the Don, but the Soviet pilots are wrecking the crossings. The Germans are now constructing drawbridges,' camouflaging them by day and using them by night. These bridges, however, are only partially successful as Soviet bombers and artillery hammer them day and night. HELD FOR SIX DAYS. The Russians have now halted the enemy advance, on Voronezh for six days. In trying to distract the Soviet forces from the city, the Germans have intensified their activity in the northern sector, but have been frustrated In the southern sector, the Russians have followed up and recaptured two settlements and are storming a third. They also are continually harassing the German concentrations on the eastern and western banks of the Don. In* the centre of the main battle line, on the Bryansk front, where for days severe fighting has taken place, the situation has now become calm. Here, as at Voronezh, some 250 miles to the south-east, the Germans have been forced to defend themselves behind fortifications. A large part of the enemy's forces has been switched elsewhere, apparently to the Voronezh area.—B.O.W.