STALINGRAD ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 143, 14 December 1942, Page 5

STALINGRAD ARMY

NAZIS EVACUATE HIGH

OFFICERS

' LONDON, December 12. The Moscow correspondent of "The Times" says that a significant pointer to German expectations is that though the Germans are flying in food to the encircled arm; on the Stalingrad front, the Rus« sians possess proof that they are evacuating high-ranking officers. The Germans outside are using the railway across the Don bend, and another from the south-west, to reinforce-their army for an attack on the lines 60 miles deep with which the Russians have surrounded yon Hoth.

' The Germans are utilising every source of man-power over a wide area, ; including the Luftwaffe's ground staff and railwaymen. The Russians are experiencing heavier German pressure from west of the encirclement as the I enemy reinforcements arrive. i The Germans may attempt to hack their way through when the attention of the Russians is distracted, but they are reliably reported at the moment to be limiting their attacks to an effort to regain the more favourable defensive positions from which they have been driven. FIERCE BATTLES. South of Rzhev the Russians are still firmly astride the railway to Vyazma, where the positional warfare has developed into fierce battles which are raging deep within the Rzhev-Vyazma-Velikie Luki triangle. The Germans are. contesting every, foot of ground. I The German: counter-attack before j Velikie Luki was not profitable, and the Russians are consolidating over a considerable area. The German news agency says that General Zhukov's forces have reached the Byeloi area, south-west of Rzhev. The initiative in the Caucasus has passed to the Russians in several sectors. The Russians in a moonlight battle fought at 10,OOOft, in which they used howitzers, heavily defeated German alpine troops, killing 500 and', driving the remainder down the mountainside. •.■'.'

These were followed by an avalanche of rocks, causing complete abandonment of the position.