Latest Fighting In Stalingrad

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 77, 28 September 1942, Page 5

Latest Fighting In Stalingrad

■■" LONDON, September 27. The battle for Stalingrad has gone in favour of .the Russians during the past 24 hours. ■ • Giving this news tonight in a cable to, the 8.8.C. irom Moscow, Paul "Winterton, of the "News Chronicle." speaks "again oi the enormous German losses. He describes how Soviet troops, are .blasting their way into Nazi-held houses and factories in Stalingrad's north-western suburbs, and says that the Russians have developed the technique of dynamiting' street fortresses, blowing up all the Germans inside. The.Germans speak of.the determined resistance of the Russians, and one Berlin spokesman has admitted that the Russians in the fighting north of Stalingrad have penetrated a German ■defence line. Marshal Timoshenko's offensive action north-west of Stalingrad is now coming up against stiffer German opposition, but is still making progress. This drive is aimed at relieving the defenders of Stalingrad. The Russians say that the Germans yesterday counter-attacked no fewer than six times.

The Nazi Foreign Minister, Herr yon Ribbentrop, indulged in some wishful thinking' about Stalingrad [when addressing a Berlin audience this afternoon. He declared that | with the taking of this city Germany's most dangerous antagonist would have suffered a blow from which there could be no recovery. Having left the impression that the city was already in the Nazi bag, Ribbentrop indicated that something great was indeed at stake there. Neverthe-j less, the most recent policy of the Nazi propaganda chief, Dr. Goebbels, has been to play down the importance of Stalingrad. Another official comment on the battle has come from Moscow, where the Soviet propaganda chief, speaking to soldiers and factory workers, has declared that Stalingrad is undermining the offensive spirit of the German army and destroying its men, as well as giving the Russian army new military experience. The Germans, he said, have lost most valuable time in the summer and early autumn. He also spoke of the ever-strengthening bonds between Russia, Britain, and the United States, and told how the Nazi plans in Russia had been upset. By concentrating over 100 infantry divisions in south Russia, together with huge masses of tanks and planes, the Germans had expected in two or three weeks to seize the whole of southern Russia, paving the way for a new offensive against Moscow, and later against Britain. The assault on Stalingrad had not succeeded, and German comment was getting more and more apologetic. The Germans have renewed their pressure towards the Grozny oilfields, in the Caucasus. They have launched a big panzer attack near Mozdok, but the Russians say they are confident that this challenge will not succeed.

Marshal Timoshenko.