“AXIS FORCES WEARING OUT”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20900, 28 September 1942, Page 3

“AXIS FORCES WEARING OUT”

STALINGRAD DRIVE CLAIM IN MOSCOW NAZI LINE" PIERCED RESULT IN BALANCE (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 27. Marshal Timoshenko’s forces m Stalingrad rre fighting against time, because, while the defenders are holding out, the relieving Russian army from . the north is driving towards the city. The German Hjgn Command admitted that the relieving force had pierced the German mam positions on the hills northward of Stalingrad.' The Red Star declares:..“The German forces in Stalingrad are wearing out. It is possible for us to hold them. There are signs that the Germans ; are getting near the point of exhaustion.” The latest news from Stalingrad is that Soviet tanks are most active in the new phase in the street battles, in which they are often wresting the initiative from the Germans. Soviet tanks are crashing into German machine-gun nests at first-storey windows. German tanks avoid direct combat but crawl behind infantry who attack the Soviet tanks with explosives. Russian sources do not substantiate the German claim to have advanced as far as the Volga under the support of dive-bombers. • Moscow reports that the Germans in one sector of Stalingrad succeeded at the cost of heavy losses in penetrating the Russian defence lines. The Russians are fiercely engaged in trying to mop. up this group. German Screen Thinner

Reuter's correspondent in Moscow says the German screen between the Russian defenders and the relieving army will become thinner in the next few days. Even .the next 24 hours may turn the balance either way. The fighting is so entangled in some Stalingrad districts that the Germans have been forced to give up bombing for fear of slaughtering their own troops. German tanks at first .took advantage of Stalingrad’s broad boulevards for massed onslaughts, but the Russians destroyed 20 or 30 tanks a day, forcing the enemy to modify his methods. On the Volga, “a little navy of gunboats nightly escorts supplies across the river while a Volga flotilla called “floating tanks,” which have been reinforced with larger guns, maintains a ceaseless supporting barrage against the German lines. With Marshal Timoshenkos ofiensive operations north-west of Stalingrad growing both in scope and strength, the Germans are bringing up their heaviest artillery in order to support the seriously diminishing infantry forces which, according to a Moscow report, lost 3000 killed in two days. The Russians are encountering strongly prepared position; and on one narrow sector alone they were obliged to overcome 40 block-houses and to silence more than 40 guns before they were able to advance. Axis Tanks Trapped Meanwhile, the battles within Stalingrad maintain a ferocious pitch. Small groups of German tanks are roaming the city and attempting to confuse the defenders, but the Russians are accustomed to these sorties and are skilfully trapping and destroying many of these tanks. The greatest danger is still coming from groups of shock troops who are leaking through the Russian lines. The new trend of German comment on the Stalingrad battle gives ground for the hope that the city may be saved. Swedish correspondents in Berlin agree that the German propaganda service is making concerted efforts to shift the centre of interest from Stalingrad to the other fronts, particularly the Caucasus. Swedish correspondents report a steadily growing feeling that the Germans are attempting to prepare the public for the failure to capture the city. The Daily express correspondent in Moscow says that the prolonged, and magnificent defence of Stalingrad is changing the whole story of the war. It would be foolish to state that Stalingrad can hold on indefinitely. The growing problems of supply and transport are too great to be sure of that, but the possibility of a German failure remains. Volga Bristles With Guns New armoured forces have joined in the battle, according to a Moscow press message. High speed motorboats are coursing along the Volga, engaging the German tanks and artillery at short range. These river tanks are also employed to protect the crossings against the Luftwaffe and against trench mortars trying to cripple the Soviet transport of supplies and reinforcements and the evacuation of the wounded. The Volga is bristling with guns pointing to the skies and to the land, with heavy guns on monitors reinforcing the Russian long-range artillery. A Russian communique refers briefly to the fighting in the areas of Stalingrad, Mosdok, and Sinyavino, and records no important changes in these areas or on other sectors. In Stalingrad itself, street fighting continues, states a supplement, while north-west of tlje city, where the Russians have for some days been striking at the German left flank, several enemy counter-attacks were repulsed with heavy loss and the capture of booty.