GERMAN ADVANCE SLOWED

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 July 1942, Page 5

GERMAN ADVANCE SLOWED

POSITION IMPROVING RUSSIANS’ SOUTHERN RETREAT LONDON, July 17. On the southern Russian front the Russian forces are continuing their fighting withdrawal south-east of Millerovo, states a supplement to today’s Soviet communique. The German two-pronged offensive in the Millerovo area continues, according to reports from correspondents. The pace of the German advance, however, is slower. At present the southern arm, apparently aimed at Rostov, is the more threatening. There have been no Moscow reports of the northern arm since the Germans reached Boguchar. A supplement to the Russian midnight communique says the Russians are attacking on a number of sectors of the Voronezh front. One Soviet unit broke the first line of the enemy defence and destroyed more than 100 anti-tank guns. They went on to break the second line. Around Voronezh the position is apparently slightly better to-day, although still critical. Giving this information in a dispatch to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Mr. Paul Winterton, of the London News Chronicle,” states that in some places the Russians have launched counterattacks. West of Voronezh, which the Germans claimed to have taken nine days ago, Nazi troops are digging themselves in. FIGHTING AT RZHEV. LONDON, July 16. A supplement to the Russian midnight communique of July 15 says: “On the central front three companies of Germans penetrated the Soviet line east of Rzhev but were cut off by an artillery and trench mortar barrage from the mam body. The Russians then charged with tommy-guns and annihilated the en- ' A correspondent of “Red Star” visited the Rzhev sector after the Germans made claims to have encircled several Soviet divisions ana taken scores of thousands of pnsoners. “The German claims are wildly exaggerated,” the correspondent says. “Between July 2 and July 13 they advanced a few miles, made no qfmfpeic gain. They lost 200 tanks, Ind cut off 5000 Russian soldiers many of whom are now in action as guerrillas.” COMPARATIVE LOSSES LONDON, July 16. A special Soviet communique states: “The Germans sustained huge losses in the terrific lighting of the last two months. German losses i killed, wounded, and captured weie 900,000, of which 350,000 were killed or wounded. The enemy lost 200, .00 guns, 2500 tanks and at least 3000 ae *‘The n Russian losses in the same period were 399 000 and missing, 1905 guns, 940 tanks, and 1354 aircraft.” RUSSIANS ATTACKING

LONDON, July 17. The Moscow radio says: Following on the arrival of new reserves, the Red Army has taken the offensive in several sectors on the Voronezh iiont. The situation there has become : favourable. One advancing Russian unit broke through the German front line, destroying over a hundred antiiff PO°ritS h cSnlinl hands repeatedly. The German advance in several sectors of the Voionezh front has stopped. On ojjers the enemy has bee npushed back alter suffering heavy losses. A Russian communique reports. There is intense fighting in the Voronezh area. There the Red Army prevented the Germans advancing. Fighting is also intense south-east of Millerovo. There a Russian fighting withdrawal continues. STALINGRAD’S DEFENCE LONDON, July 17. A Stockholm message says: German sources quote reports from Ankara that M. Stalin has gone to Stalingrad, on the Volga, and that he will personally direct its defence. The Russian Chief of the General Staff is already in Stalingrad. Around Stalingrad there are strong reinforcements of men and material of a newly formed Central Asiatic Army now “railed that M. Stalin was reputed to be the author of Geneial Voroshilav’s successful defence of Stalingrad against the White Russians in the Russian civil war.

SITUATION REVIEWED.

GERMAN SUPREME EFFORTS,

RUGBY, July 17. Fighting at Voronezh is officially reported from Moscow to be C ?P“ tinuing with undiminished intensity. The repeated enemy attempts to break through failed t and the enemy continued to suffer heavy losses. Toe Russians are also attacking, and their tanks penetrated one place in pursuit of the retiring Germans. Opinion in London is that it tn® Russians can continue to hold this German offensive, it will be a considerable Russian victory. x x M . Moscow Press messages state that the Red Army is regaining some of the ground lost last week at Voronezh. In the south, the Germans using massed armoured forces, regardless of losses, in the effort 1o smash the retreating army. The Russian Army is holding them off, but the threat to Rostov and Stalingrad increases hourly, as the Germans south and east of Millerovo have achieved numerical superiority. The pattern of events on the Eastern Front, since the German breakthrough from Kursk, is analysed by a well informed London observer as follows: Von Bock took a big risk when he drove forward on a narrow front towards Voronezh. However, the tremendous weight and therefore the speed of the German advance evidently forced Timoshenko to concentrate his main effort against this frontal assault. While the Russians are putting up a furious resistance against' attempts to cross the Don, von Bock was able to widen the front ' of the offensive southward, thus consolidating his position. The Russians withdrew rapidly, though in good order, behind the Don from Voronezh to Boguchar. The weight of the German assault then shifted south, and there is little doubt this direction was the core of the present offensive. The apparent objectives are the eastern portion of the Donets industrial area and Stalingrad on the Caspian-Volga route, by which oil and British-American supplies come. It is understood that both sides have immense forces arrayed along this southern front, and a struggle as ferocious and critical as that in front of Moscow last October has evidently begun. The present effort of the Germans seems .devoted to seizing the great elbow of the Don in order to curve in behind Timoshenko on the Donats. Here is the chief danger point. It seems likely that Timoshenko’s plan is to fall back to strongly prepared positions along the lower Don held by fresh troops and tank formations. Although the Germans have deprived Timoshenko of the important lateral Moscow-Voronezh-Rostdv railway, they have not acquired the use of it for themselves. The Russians have also lost the rich corn growing area to the west of the upper Don and are

threatened with the loss of the industrial and coal mining area in the eastern Donets Basin. They have never been under any illusions that the German military machine, which they came so near breaking last Winter, could not be refurnished by drastic combing out of German manpower. by coercion of the Balkan satellites, and by speeding up armament production in German-occupied Europe for a supreme effort this Summer. That supreme effort is now being made. If it is to succeed, and Germany’s fate hangs on that, Timoshenko’s army must be completely disintegrated, the Caucasus and Volga Basin must be conquered, and the armies of the noJth and centre must be isolated from Archangel and the supply routes from the Urals, and all this before the advent of Winter.

Although the initial impact of their onslaught carried the Germans forward and placed them in .strategic positions which gravely ' threaten Timoshenko, yet there have been no encirclements of large Russian forces. The Red Army of the south has not been detached from the centre. The German offensive is conditioned by time, and the Russian defence is conditioned by space. German time and Russian space are both contracting. All depends on the relative speed of these two contractions, and that is primarily governed by the skill of the Soviet Command in avoiding a decisive fracture in their system of mobile defence, and by the equipment at their disposal. That is why British and American supplies are vitally important in this momentous struggle, and why they will be maintained at all hazards, even though that involves wastage of shipping urgently needed for other enterprises. RUSSIANS IN HUNGARY ANKARA, July 17. Hungary is mobilising the Carpa-thcT-Russians. Those fit for service will be enrolled in a Hungarian division, but they will be employed behind the front for fear of desertion. Others will be sent to west German armament works, where they will receive wages thirty per cent, under the German workers. A third category is detailed for forced labour in Car-patho-Russia The Carpatho.-Russians total 550,000, and there are 146,000 eligible for a call-up.