AXIS REVERSE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20863, 15 August 1942, Page 5

AXIS REVERSE

DON BEND BATTLE BIG DRIVE FAILS DISORDERLY RETREAT TANK FORCE REPULSED (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (3.30 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 13. General von Bock’s thrust against Stalingrad, now in its fifth week, is being held on all fronts. The latest reports indicate that the great Kotelnikovo battle, which was resumed on a larger scale yesterday morning after the Germans and Rumanians suffered a sharp reverse, is still moving slightly in the Russian favour, while the Russians have succeeded in restoring the position at Kletskaya after an important German advance on one sector. Details are now available of a phase of the Kotelnivoko battle which ended yesterday morning with the disorderly retreat of the German and Rumanian forces from the positions they had gained at great cost ih the preceding few days. After hurling great forces of tanks , v >d lorried infantry against the defence lines, losing many machines to the Russian tanks waiting for them in ambush, and being driven back by a decisive counter-blow, the German Command on Tuesday morning accumulated a force of 300 tanks. These bore down in two waves on the line of hills where the Russians had established their main fire point. Murderous Fire The defenders held their fire until shock troops could bo seen clinging to iko sides of tanks. The Russian guns and mortars then opened up a murderous five. The German tanks were seen 1o recoil and many burst into flames as thermite shells found their mark. Others broke formation, took cover in small valleys and then turned tail and retreated iii confusion. The enemy on an adjacent sector then threw m infantry, which edged the Russians off a number of heights. Before the enemy had time to consolidate the Russians counter-attacked, regained the lost territory, and drove the entire force except one regiment, off the battlefield. This regiment was engaged all night long and the Russians, by daybreak yesterday, held their original lines intact. The Kotelnikovo battles are at present; among the most sanguinary of the entire southern campaign as the Axis force attempt to drive along the railway towards Stalingrad. Ferocious street fighting is occurring in many townships and the fields are strewn with hundreds of dead. A Soviet communique states that during to-day Russian troops were engaged in fierce fighting in the areas of Kletskay, north-east of Kotelhikovo, Krasnodar, Maikop, Cherkesk, and in Mlneralnya Vody area, on the Rostov-Baku railway. 10 miles north of Pyatigorsk. There is no change in other sectors. Nazi Regiment Wiped Out Soviet warships sank an enemy subniarine in the Gulf of Finland. In the Barents Sea, Soviet warships sank three transports totalling 28,000 tons. In the Krasnodar area, a fierce enemy attack was repulsed. The Russians fought a defensive battle in the Mineralnya Vody area. In the Krasnodar area, a fierce enemy attack was repulsed. In the Voronej sector the Russians wiped out a German regiment. On a sector of the Bryansk front, Soviet troops broke the ehemy resistance, forced a river crossing, and occupied several inhabited localities. A German communique claims that the Germans, despite stubborn resistance, pushed back the Russians in the Caucasus area, captured Elistra, and gained further ground between the Volga and the Don Rivers. The Vichy radio declared that the Germans have reached Krymskaya and are now in contact with the Russian line of resistance before tne naval base or Novorossisk itself. The Germans captured Ratal Paiffnnsk after hard fighting. The Axis forces have reached a point 28 miles from Grozny, the oilfields centre.