ENEMY DRIVES WEDGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 42, 18 August 1942, Page 5

ENEMY DRIVES WEDGE

SOVIET POSITIONS

DON BEND BATTLE

LONDON, August 17. After many days ana nights of Incessant attacks by tanks, motorised infantry, and mobile artillery, the Germans, driving on Stalingrad from the Don bend, have succeeded in penetrating the Russian front-line positions. This news is given by Paul Winterton, the "News Chronicle" correspondent. It followed a Moscow announcement that Soviet forces in this area were engaged in heavy defensive action. , , The Germans have made widespread claims of successes in the Don bend.. They say they have reached the western bank, and claim that nearly all the Don bend is now in their hands. There is no confirmation of this. The barrier of the Don 40 miles from Stalingrad still has to be crossed. Mr. Winterton says that the Germans have not made any attempt to cross the Don in this area. They have not sufficient control of the Don bend to mount an attack across the river at the present time. Nevertheless, the position is serious. The enemy threat to Stalingrad from the south-west is held up. The Russians are well dug in north-east of Kotelnikovo. The Germans have made little progress in their drive on Kotelnikovo. and Moscow reports that all enemy attacks in this area have been repulsed. These attacks have been on a smaller scale than of late.

There is no news of the German thrust towards Astrakhan on the lower Volga: The midnight Moscow communique says that the* Russian troops fought engagements today south-east of Kletskaya, north-east of Kotelnikovo, and in the areas of Mineralnye Vody and Krasnodar. Near Krasnodar the Germans have succeeded in forcing the Kuban River.

At Mineralnye Vody large numbers of enemy tanks and infantry are pressing on in the direction of the Grozny oilfields. Soviet forces in this area have had to give ground under the pressure of superior numbers.