STRUGGLE IN SOUTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 29, 3 August 1942, Page 5

STRUGGLE IN SOUTH

TURNING-POINT OF WAR REACHED

LONDON, August 1. The Moscow correspondent of the National Broadcasting Company of America says that the turning-point has been reached in south Russia. There will be no further retreat. The Germans today made no further progress except a

small advance south of Rostov.

Savage battles were raging on the j Don-front today as Marshal Timoshenko hurled in strong reserves in an i endeavour to smash the German drive on Stalingrad. , A Moscow message says that both sides are throwing in all they have in the battle in the Don elbow, which is being fought with, extraordinary fierceness. I Attacks take place on from 10- to 15- j mile fronts, and' possession of each hil-! lock, ravine, and tiny village is fiercely contested. Positions change hands several times daily. FEROCITY UNDIMINISHED. . The ferocity and scale of the fight- j ing along the Don both on land and : in the air have in no degree diminished, a later report states, and the casualties and destruction of equipment are on a commensurate scale. The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that Russian armoured trains have rolled into the Don steppeland,

bringing fresh fighters, which were rushed into battle immediately.

"Isvestia" echoes Stalin's "win or die" ox'der. Stalin's voice is in all these rallying cries. He is certainly taking an active part in organising the struggle to save Stalingrad and the Volga-Caucasus region.

Every day gained improves the chance of getting in the harvest. Immense numbers of city people are helping on the collective farms, but transport is difficult even when the grain is reaped. The Germans in the Kletskaya region are meeting with the {Strongest opposition encountered dnce the fighting in the lower Don began. The Russian Air Force yesterday subjected the Nazis to mass bombing, frustrating a big pincer movement initiated by several infantry divisions and a tank division, i The battles in this area are of a mobile character, and are raging over I 100 square miles. • , EFFORTS BY BOTH SIDES. The Russians are still attempting to thrust -the Germans back across the j Don and the Gernfans are trying to disrupt supplies and munitions to the Russians by frequent aerial attacks on Stalingrad. "Isvestia" states the Nazis have not been able to break through the defences to bomb the city and supplies from the city to the Russian armies are still undiminished.

The Germans are developing their offensive to the south-west of Rostov along the Gulf of Taganrog, and are widening the front based on Bataisk. Two tank units, supported by German battalions, tried to breach the Russian defences on the coastline of the Gulf of Taganrog, but were repelled by Russian marine? and coastal batteries.

At Tsimlyansk, Russian counter-at-tack? supported by strong tank forma-