ON A CIRCULAR PKAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 100, 24 October 1942, Page 7

ON A CIRCULAR PKAN

NAZI pfiQIGHOkDS

(Rec/i2;2b p.m.y ;rHjgby, ' Oct. 23. There is little,; if-any^ slackening in the scale or weight of the.fighting in the Stalingrad arear according to a Russian supplementary communique and the latest Moscow messages. Enemy infantry" and tank.' attacks, are being repulsed by machine-gun and mortar fire. "■•-- -:- '■-■—'■■ v^~- '

Inside the city, the Germans^' are building up strongholds on" a circular plan. Often they find. it_necessary to gain in ;some particular building complete contact between groups. The fiercest fighting -centres -round these premises, which .-may change hands several-times;!^.JL..'.

The Germans: .givje: their fortified points every protection- possible, so that in places the Russians, when they attack, are compelled to concentrate considerable fire and forces against every house;, -they storm. Nevertheless, the Russians recovered several; blocks of; houses, in the western suburbs two "days ago. ■

The "Red Star" /says- that, where deadlock is reached in'the'fighting inside Stalingrad "the- Germans are- seeking new o£, street fighting iri which batteries jare -broken up. and single tanks accompany tommy-r-gunr ners and infantry in a.charge. Light guns are mounted on | roof-tops. Tanks are very vulnerable iti street fighting, and therefore are- used with extreme caution, often' merely as a hide-out for small groups of tommy-gunners. The "Red Star" adds that 22 German divisions are concentrated against Stalingrad, including 15 infantry divisions, three motorised divisions of infantry, and four: -tank; divisions, possessing in- all over 500 tanks, 1200 fields guns, 1000 .trench., mortars,: and 800 aircraft, = , ' North-west ■of the city, the Russians on ; the Germans', flank dislodged the enemy frojn "an irhportant- -height. Rumanian'trpop^ who"-were freshly thrown : into, the battle^, here suffered severe casualties. - ; ,':..-: •: An e.nemy :grbiip; jfrh'ich' had*' driven a wedge in the positions in the Mozdok area was mopped up" and the position restored. ' ~~" Moscow radio reports :activity;, by the Baltic SeaT'air' arm," which.' attacked enemy- naval units and damaged a torpedo-boat and a cutter. Another group of aircraft, silenced eight enemy gun batteries and 1 six mortar batteries and destroyed an anti-air-craft installation, railway. trucks, and station buildings in several places.— 8.0. W.