GROZNY OIL CENTRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 37, 12 August 1942, Page 5

GROZNY OIL CENTRE

NAZI HOPES OF DRIVE

I LONDON, August 11. |It is clear that the Germans are i determined to exert all pressure to cut off the Grozny oil centre, and that they then hope to complete the severance of the Russian armies and air forces from the main oilfield at Baku by. occupying Makhach Kala, on the Caspian. The Russians have not yet announced the fall of Krasnodar or Mair kop; which were claimed by the Germans at the weekend, but their loss is generally expected. The Germans have now claimed that advanced units of the fast-moving army are already striking eastward along the Terek River. > ■■ The Stockholm correspondent of -The Times" reports that the Germans have -mi<'ou't"red rt^ter'nip'H resistance at many-points in the Krasnodar ,:nd Armavir areas, but tiiL.t tho Russians appear to have transferred their heavy armour to the Volga, maybe in ■ the.belief that it would be unsuitable1 for mountain warfare. The present position on the Sea of j Azov, he says, is not clear, but the in-

dications are that the Russians hay* fallen back to the Black Sea, probably to Novorossisk and also round the mouth of the Kuban River on the Taman Peninsula.

Reports from German sources suggest that the Germans may attempt a movement on the mainland from the east in order to capture a bridgehead near the Kerch Straits, after which a fresh army from the Crimea could pour into the Caucasian struggle. The Russians are aware of this possibility. It is pointed out that the time would be most propitious for a Russian counter-offensive from Voronezh to the Baltip--=as soon as the German army from the Crimea is entangled "in the Caucasus.