AXIS BREAK-THROUGH IN SOUTH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20858, 10 August 1942, Page 3

AXIS BREAK-THROUGH IN SOUTH

DANGER CAUCASUS DRIVE ENEMY HELD ON DON RED SUCCESS AT VORONEJ (By Telegraph—Press Assn. Copyright.) (11 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 9. Moscow reports state that the Germans have broken through in strength to Armavir and are advancing in two directions, threatening the Maikop oilfields. The situation is critical. Ferce fighting is raging. Don and Kuban Cossacks southwerd of Kuschovsk were forced to retreat. The Russians captured an inhabited locality on the Leningrad front, where the Germans were pressed back southeastwards.

Further successes on the Don front, in the neighbourhood of Kletskaya, and south of Voronez are announced officially by the Soviet authorities. Russian troops on the west side of the river south of Voronej improved their positions substantially. Apparently only delaying actions are being fought near Armavir, where superior forces of enemy tanks and motorised infantry are advancing south-eastward.

Unofficial Moscow reports state that the fighting south of Kuschevskaya is extremely bitter, but the Don Mid Kuban Cossacks defending that area are outnumbered and have been forced to withdraw once more.

The Soivet communique stated that fierce fighting occurred yesterday in the regions of Kletskaya, northeastward of Kotelnikovo, and Kropotkis, 50 miles north-west of Armavir. Cossacks Take Toll

Further reports state that in the region of Kletskaya the Germans are attempting to retake lost positions and made several counter-attacks which were repulsed. North-east of Kotelnikovo, Russian troops waged fierce fighting with varying success against enemy tanks and automatic riflemen who had driven a wedge into the Russian position.

In the region of Armavir, the Russians fought defensive actions and in several sectors of this front counterattacked, killing several hundred of the enemy. On one sector of this front, after bloody fighting in which 11 enemy tanks were destroyed, the Russians withdrew to new positions. Kuban and Don Cossacks are inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. One Cossack unit in one day killed over 400 of the enemy. Southward of Voronej, the enemy attempting to take lost positions were repulsed with heavy loss. On the Volkhov front, there were local engagements. On the Leningrad front during the occupation of two places by the Russians, more than 700 ot' the enemy were killed. One Soviet partisan group operating in the Leningrad district, in three days, derailed five military trains and wrecked 60 wagons.

The Times’ correspondent in Moscow says the main German tank concentration is being held at Kotelnikovo, where the Soviet air activity is intense. The German tanks and shock troops which broke through on Friday are being steadily reduced by incessant counter-attacks. The Russians are fighting dauntlessly in the Don River bend whose rich fields are littered with burning lorries, shattered guns, charred remains of supply depost and bodies of the dead. Guerrillas Organised / Marshal Timoshenko’s men appear to have had the better of the enemy during the past 48 hours. The battle shows no signs of diminishing. The Russians are attacking westwards of the Serafimovich area from where the Germans hold the entire right bank of the Don as far as the Vornej area. Serafimovich, on the right bank of the Don, is approximately 110 miles northwest of Stalingrad. Russian armoured units and artillery are battering the Germans’ local defences in the Rjev area. The Germans admit the Russians are attacking the Volkhov bridgehead and also on the west bank of the Volkhov River.

The Moscow radio reports that guerrillas behind the Germart lines are being organised into regiments, brigades, and divisions, being systematically strengthened by paratroops. They have killed 100,000 Germans in the past 10 months and also 300 German-appointed burgomasters in White Russia and 20 burgomasters in the Smolensk province. With German Panzer units hourly pressing closer, the Russians are reported to be destroying the Maikop oilfields. The Sunday Express Stockholm correspondent says that the destruction began on Thursday. The wrecking is still going on and if the Russians delay the invasion for four or five days longer the destruction will be complete. All the wells eastward of Maikop have already been set on fire and filled with tons of cement. Storage and electrical installations have been demolished. NO NEED FOR ALARM DR. BENES’ CONFIDENCE (10 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 9. Tlio President of Czechoslovakia, Dr Edouard Benes, broadcasting from London to Czechs, said.: “Do not be alarmed by the happenings in Russia. The time will come when the Red Army will proceed to victory, just as there will he an attack by Britain and America on the western front."