LONG RESISTANCE YET

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 83, 5 October 1942, Page 5

LONG RESISTANCE YET

HUGE TANK TRAP IN CENTRE OF CITY

(By Telegraph—rress Association—Copyright.) LONDON, October 4. There is every prospect that the battle for Stalingrad will go on for a long time yet, according to news agency messages from Moscow. The Stockholm correspondent of. the "Daily Express" says that the Germans in the north-western suburbs of Stalingrad have begun a new thrust against the avenue leading from the north-west down to the heart of the city, which now constitutes the front line. The Russians have dug up the entire length of the avenue into a tank trap, and the Germans have repeatedly but in vain tried to pierce the trap with frontal and flank rushes.

Russian marines are playing an important role in the fighting. One group, standing for hours in the Don with.; only reeds to protect them, launched floating mines with great success. The mines swirled downstream, and blew up two of the Germans' largest pontoon bridges for the reinforcement and supply of the troops assaulting Stalingrad.

The weight of the Russian onslaught against the Germans' northern flank in the Kletskaya region and between the Don and the Volga is matched by the aggressive spirit of Russian raiding parties which range from companies down to groups of only two or three men.

They are keeping the Germans alert throughout the 24 hours. The lengthening nights are illuminated hour after

hour with rockets and flares. German gunners respond to the slightest movement, and they deluge a whole area with bullets for no apparent reason. Both sides are maintaining pressure on the Voronezh front, where in the last two days the Germans have lost 1200 dead without gaining any ground.