BATTLES IN RUSSIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1942, Page 5

BATTLES IN RUSSIA

GERMAN 'PROGRESS IN SOUTH

RUSSIANS HOLD VORONEZH LONDON, July 19. The enemy is still making progress in his drive in southern Russia towards Rostov. At the northern end of the Don front the Russians still hold Voronezh. South of Millerovo, the next important station on the railway to Rostov, down which the Germans are thrusting, is Kamenskaya. This must be closely threatened by the German forces. There is no reliable information about the situation at Voroshilovgrad, northwest of Kamenskaya, and the Ger’mans have not repeated the claim, made by Hitler’s headquarters, to have taken the town. Local flare-ups are becoming more frequent on other Russian front. There was heavy fighting yesterday north-west and south-west of Moscow. The Russians are almost exuberant about the swing-over from defence to attack around Voronezh. The Moscow radio says: “In bloody battles the initiative is passing into our hands: We are winning back territory yard by yard, house by house. The strength of our counterblows is increasing, but the enemy is still resisting bitterly. The battle grows ever fiercer. The latest reports show no improvements elsewhere. The Vichy News Agency says the Germans advancing from Voroshilovgrad, have occupied Gondorovak, 13 miles westr ol Kamenskaya. Other reports emphasise the increased German threat towards Rostov and record greater activity in the Orel and Bryansk areas. The Russians, however, have captured a large German stronghold on the Akeilman front.

Reports from Moscow say the Germans at Voronezh are using all available reinforcements. The Russians routed a German division south of Voronezh and endangered the German positions in this vital sector. Successful Russian attacks have been made at the extreme north-easterly tip of the Voronezh front. The Germans are digging in on the east bank of the Don to protect their bridgehead.

Reports indicate that, while the Russians are at least holding their own in the Voronezh area and even recovering ground in some sectors, the German threat to Rostov is increasing. The Germans are concentrating their strongest forces for a drive down the Voronezh-Rostov railwav and in the coastal advance along the” Sea of Azov thev claim to have reached a point 10 miles north-west of Rostov. Fierce fighting is going on at Migulinksaya and between Millerovo and Astachov, which is the eastward limit of the thrust toward Stalingrad. , The Vichy radio describes the battle in the region of Astachov as exceeding in violence the battle at Kharkov. It says the Germans have reached Stepanovka, 30 miles south-east of Millerovo.

VORONEZH DEVELOPMENTS.

LONDON, July 19.

A National Broadcasting Company broadcast from Moscow says that Voronezh is in ruins and that the population has been evacuated. A Moscow dispatch says a furious battle is raging at Voronezh. The Germans in their determination to hold their bridgehead at all costs are flinging in all available forces, including units from other fronts. The Russians retain the initiative but find it necessary to fight savagely for every inch. The British United Press correspondent at Moscow says Russianmanned American Airacobra fighters participating in the defence of Voronezh shot down 38 enemy aeroplanes in two days. American Boston and Boeing bombers are also giving a good account of themselves. The continued stemming of the German tide at Voronezh is regarded in London as supporting the possibility that Marshal Timoshenko anticipated that withdrawals would at first be unavoidable to absorb the first impetus of the concentrated enemy punch and now that the main impetus is spent, has been able to reply with regrouped forces, even pushing back the Germans at some points. "Nevertheless the Russians are characteristically not over-optimis-tic about the success of their coun-ter-attacks and, taking in the whole picture of the sustained strength of the German drive south and southeastwards towards Stalingrad and Rostov, commentators at Moscow still describe the situation as critical. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that, although operations on the Donetz front have slowed down somewhat, it would be dangerous to magnify the significance of this because the Germans have captured a large amount of territory and need time for arranging supplies. It can safely be said, however, that the expenditure for gains have thus far exceeded the German estimates and progress has been more difficult than was expected after the breakthrough into the plain beyond the Voronezh-Rostov railway. Marshal Timoshenko’s army still stands as an unshattered fighting force. Marshal von Bock’s initial impetus has already largely expended itself without having achieved the large encirclement and annihilations so confidently promised.

The Berlin spokesman asserted that the German’s military object was not so much to destroy the Red Armies as to deprive them of territory, thereby paralysing them. THE DON BATTLE. An announcement from Hitler’s headquarters on Friday stated that Voroshilovgrad had been taken by storm after a day’s heavy fighting. A large part of the town was aflame. The Russians, who are retreating to the south-east from Millerovo, are being subjected to furious and unceasing attacks. The Germans, who are attempting to drive to the east in the direction of Stalingrad and south toward Rostov, are flinging m huge reserves of tanks and infantry. . The Germans, in addition, are driving frontally and trying successive turning movements. The Russian rearguards are fighting on stubbornly. ' “Pravda” states: “The Don battle is assuming wider proportions and the danger is great. The situation is serious." The Red Army must and shall halt the enemy and break down his onslaught.” The Germans are using massed armoured forces in an effort to smash the retreating Soviet Army. The Russians are holding them off, but the threat to Rostov and Stalingrad increases every hour, as the Germans south and east of Millerovo have achieved numerical superiority. A Soviet communique states that naval units in the Baltic sank a transport of 8000 tons. RUSSIAN PRESS CLAIMS.

(Rec. 12.45 P.m.) LONDON, July 19. The initiative at Voronezh is now entirely in Russian hands, says “Izvestia.” The Germans are trying to rush reinforcements across the Don, but Russian artillery yesterday wiped out a whole infantry regiment attempting to cross south of Voronezh.

“Pravda” says: The Germans in the Voronezh area and south of Voronezh are being slowly but continually pressed back westward. The Germans are laying minefields, throwing up barbed wire entanglements, cut-

ting roads, turning every stone house into a strongpoint, and burying tanks in the ground. The Russians flung them out of three inhabited localities on one sector of the eastern bank of the Don. , » “Red Star” says: The centre of gravity of the German offensive ?s now in the North Caucasian region. Fighting is going on over a wide area. The Germans are still piling in reinforcements, looking for weak spots, trying to break through and attack us from the rear. Obdurate resistance in face of great numerical superiority is defeating the breakthrough attempts. The Germans here possess so large a force that only the strongest defence with powerful counter blows can hope to arrest the German advance. An Ankara message says that wellinformed Turks declare the Russians have several millions of well-equip-ped reserves within the Voronezh-Astrakhan-Kuibyshev triangle. A German communique states that the Russians attempted a landing from the sea east of Mariupol, but were beaten back. Berlin radio reveals that the Russians had gained a foothold, but Rumanian cavalry discovered and repulsed them. The radio adds that the Russian boats escaped' under cover of darkness. The Russian objective was the destruction of a coastal artillery post.

CENTRAL FRONT

LONDON, July 19

Reports from Russia record greater German activity in the Orel and Bryansk areas. Russian forces captured a large German stronghold on the Akeilman front. A message from Moscow reports that the Germans on the Rzhev front have advanced several miles in the last few days, their losses being heavy. There is at present a lull on this front, but a renewal of the attack is expected at any moment. “Red Star” reports that the Russians launched a series of successful counter-attack so nthe Bryansk front and recaptured several localities where they found two thousand German dead. Russian Stormoyiks blasted two German concentrations behind the Bryansk front, wiping out about five thousand troops. RUSSIAN CONFIDENCE.

RUGBY, July 19. Messages from Moscow show the continued severity of enemy pressure, though still keeping the situation critical, especially in the south, has in no way broken the Russian resistance anywhere. Appealing to the Red Army to exert the utmost effort to halt the Germans in the south, “Red Star” says: “If the enemy there achieves his aim, the tnreat to the Fatherland will increase tenfold. Can we hold the enemy? .Absolutely, yes. The defenders of the Soviet South can and must find strength to stem the Germans and bleed them white. This is demanded by the Fatherland, the fate of which is being decided on the battlefield.” Fighting in the Voronezh area continues with unabated fury. The Red Army is slowly recapturing lost ground, in spite of the savage resistance by the Germans, who continually bring up fresh men and tanks, in face of enormous losses. The Soviet forces continue to hold the initiative, while the Germans are on the defensive, feverishly erecting fortifications between the Don and Voronezh Rivers, and digging tank traps ttr protect the flanks. Simultaneously, the Germans are trying to bring up reinforcements across the Don, but Soviet pilots are wrecking the crossings. The Germans are now constructing drawbridges, camouflaging them by day and using them by night. These bridges, however, are only partially successful, as the Soviet bombers and artillery hammer them day and night. The Russians have now halted the enemy advance on Voronezh for six days. In trying to distract the Soviet forces from the city, the Germans intensified their activity in the northern sector, but were frustrated. In the southern sector, the Russians followed up the recapture of two settlements by storming a third, and are continually harassing the German concentrations on the eastern and western banks of the Don. In the central of the main battle line, on the Briansk front, where for days severe fighting has taken place, the situation has now become calm. Here as at Voronezh, some 250 miles to the south-east, the Gormans are forced to defend themselves behind fortifications. A large part of the enemy’s forces has been switched elsewhere, apparently to the Voronezh area.

RUSSIA’S FOOD PROBLEMS.

(N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

(Rec. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 19. Russia, Egypt, shipping and production are the subjects at present chiefly occupying the British public’s attention. The news from Russia hangs like a heavy thundercloud over the nation, and is emphasised by Mr. Lyttelton’s statement that “at no time since the battle of Britain have we stood in graver peril.” Russia’s problem of “digesting” the German mechanised hordes before the arrival of Winter has forced on the Soviet Supreme Command the question of how much more territory it can sacrifice to buy time to maintain the fighting forces comparatively intact. Can Timoshenko and the Red Air Force remain undefeated? While the territories that the Germans gain are very important, Hitler’s main objective in Russia is not merely oil and wheat, but the breaking up and smashing up of Russia’s military power, after which the other fruits of victory would become automatic.

Authoritative quarters in London are of opinion that Russia will hold out, even if by the narrowest margin. This is tempered by the realisation that the German resources show no sign of failing. Russia’s problems are increasing, for in addition to holding out against Germany, she also has the problems of food and keeping up production. Recent reports from Russia suggest that there is deterioration of the food position in the industrial towns. The fertile Don area has been overcome before the grain has ripened, with the result that the crops have probably been lost like those of Bessarabia and Eastern Poland last year. There is every indication that Russia will need to draw on the grain accumulated in pre-war years. The German advance means that the output of the Donetz coal basin must probably be written off, and important industrial cities like Voroshilovgrad lost. Thus, together with the call' for the second front, Russia is also asking the Allies for more machinery and equipment, in addi-tion-to tanks, guns and planes. The growing Rusian difficulties add political colour to the problem of the Second Front, for while the AngloRussian Treaty in June wiped away many barriers to the goodwill between the two countries, it is felt that if nothing can be done to relieve the pressure on Russia at this critical stage doubts and suspicions may again spring up, causing misunderstandings which will not be helpful after the war. The Allies’ position in regard to the Second Front is that they would if they could, while they are undoubtedly straining every effort.