ENEMY PRESSED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 75, 25 September 1942, Page 3

ENEMY PRESSED

RUSSIAN ATTACKS

NORTH-WEST OF STALINGRAD

tßy Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright.) (Rec. 2.p.m.) . LONDON, Sept. 24. After Russian bombers, escorted by fighters, had carried out heavy attacks which were also under the • protection of a. powerful artillery barrage, the Russians launched . several attacks north-west of Stalingrad. The enemy counter-attacked in some sectors, but were repelled. The Russians .broke into three villages, and continue to press the. Germans hard. In three big counter-attacks at Voronezh the Germans lost over 1500 in killed and were forced back to their origiharpositioris. ' ' German tanks wiped out a battalion of Austrians on this front. The Austrians broke under the Russian fire, and German tanks which were sent to follow them fired on them from behind. •

The Russian pressure has forced the Germans, to discontinue the offensive in the. northern Caucasus mountains and to give, up several positions which they occupied. The Russians, despite German infiltrating tactics, with alpine troops, managed to hold on to important heights and passes, and the deteriorating weather has bogged down the Germans. Very fierce fighting is continuing, but the. Russians are apparently now on.top. The • Germans have not slackened their pressure in the Mozdok area or on the coast of the Black Sea southeast of Novorossisk, but they made.no progress in the Mozdok area yesterday despite ■ the bringing up of fresh reserves. "The.situation on the Black Sea coast, where the Germans are massing large- forces, remains serious.

SOVIET FLOTILLA SUCCESSES.

Russian flotilla activity on the Volga is supporting the defenders of Stalingrad, s;ays the "Isvestia." Flotillas are sweeping up enemy mines and harassing the enemy on ■ the river banks. One flotilla group made a surprise landing at one point and captured a populated place in the neighbourhood, of Stalingrad. Another,. in two weeks, exterminated two battalions of Germans and Rumanians. v The Gei-man. propaganda .agency in Stockholm reveals : that the Russians are bringing up reinforcements across the Don. at Voronezh- and across the Volga 'at Stalingrad, over "invisible bridges." The ■ agency attributes the Russian1 successes to the use of dozens of these bridges, which are built a few inches below- water level. They, are invisible from the air, and the Russians traverse them under cover of fog and darkness. Italian troops discovered the bridges when they saw Russians apparently walking on the water. . .

The Russian air'force on the Leningrad front has for .the first, time encountered massed formations of Italian Fiats and Capronis. Eighteen Italian planes-were shot down in five encounters.