DISORDERLY RETREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 40, 15 August 1942, Page 5

DISORDERLY RETREAT

AN ENEMY REVERSE (By Telegwtjsti—Jwsa Assteiattan—Copyright.) LONDON, August 14. '' Details are now available of a phase of the Kotelnikovo battle which ended yesterday morning with a disorderly retreat by the German • and Bumanian forces from positions they had gained at great cost in the preceding few days, . . After hurling great forces of tanks and lorried infantry against the Russian defence lines and losing many machines to the Russians' tanks awaiting them in ambush, and being driven back by a decisive counter-blow, the German command on Tuesday morning accumulated a force of 300 tanks. These bore down in two waves dn a line of hills where the Russians had established their main firepoint. The defenders held their fire till the shock troops could be seen clinging to the sides Of the tanks, and the Russians" gun& and mortars then opened up a murderous fire. The German tanks were seen to recoil; many burst into flames as thermite shells found their mark, arid Others broke, formation, took cover in small valleys, and turned tail and retreated in confusion. The enemy then, in an adjacent sector, threw in infantry, which edged the Russians ofi a number of heights. Before the eneniy had time to consolidate, the Russians counter-at-tacked and regained the lost territory and drove the entire force except, one regiment off the battlefield. This Tegiment was engaged through the night, and the Russians by daytereak yesterday held their original lines intact; These battles in the Kotelnikovo sector are at m-esent among the most sanguinary of the entire southern campaign as the Axis forces attempt to drive along the railway towards Stalingrad. Ferocious street fighting has been occurring in many townships, and the fields are strewn with dead.