STALINGRAD FIGHT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21009, 4 February 1943, Page 3

STALINGRAD FIGHT

DETAILS GIVEN

STALIN’S MESSAGE

NEW SOVIET SUCCESSES (By Telefiraiih —Press Assn.—Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON. Feb. 3. A special Moscow communique last night announced that the liquidation of the Germans at Stalingrad had been completed and the historic battle thus ended with complete victory for the Russians. Lieutenant-General Streicher and his chief of staff were captured, together with tive generals. The communique states that in the past two days the Russians have taken prisoners 45,000 of the enemy, and between January 10 and February 2 captured 91,000 Germans. Altogether in the battle of Stalingrad 24 enemy generals and 2400 other officers were captured. During the general offensive against the encircled forces, the Russians took 750 aircraft, 1550 tanks, >6700 guns, 1402 mortars, over 8000 machine-guns, .90,000 rifles, more than 60,000 lorries, 7000 motor-cycles, 480 haulage tractors, 320 radio transmitters, 1000 railway trucks, 235 ammunition dumps, and large quantities of other equipment.

Replying to General Rokossovsky’s reports announcing the annihilation of the enemy at Stalingrad and listing five army corps consisting of 22 divisions and many other formations as wiped out or taken prisoner, M. Stalin, in a message to General Rokossovsky, said: "I congratulate you and the troops on the Don front on the liquidation of the Germans at Stalingrad. I express gratitude to all men, commanders, and political instructors for the successful operations.” The Berlin radio admits the capitulation of the northern group of German forces in Stalingrad. “Black Hole of Stalingrad”

The Exchange and Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians discovered the “black hole of Stalingrad”—an underground hospital in which 3000 Germans were dying from wounds, cold and hunger. The streets in the centre of the city were full of German soldiers begging for bread and asking the way to the nearest prisoner assembly posts. Stalingrad factory workers who fought as volunteers again donned their overalls and prepared to start the restoration of the enterprises. Railwaymen are already well ahead with repairs to rail installations. The Pravda announces that planning for the reconstruction of Stalingrad has already begun, and for this reason priority will be given to railway station and power plant. The Berlin radio announced, that. General von Hartmann and General Stenzell have been killed in Russia, the latter at Stalingrad. The Russians have captured Pokrovskoye and Nizhnayaduvanka in the Svatovo area, and Pavlovskaya, Novo Leuchkovskaya, and Korenovskaya, in the Tikhoretsk area.

Attacking an aerodrome at Voroshilovgrad, Russian pilots destroyed 15 enemy planes on the ground ana shot down eight in aerial combat, states a supplementary communique. A Russian communique reports the sinking of an enemy transport of 12,000 tons by naval units. The Soviet High Command has prepared “a victory plan affecting every part of the front, Which soon will be put into operation, ls declared the propaganda chief, M. Yaroslavsky, broadcasting on the Moscow radio to the Russian armies. He added: “The German army in the Caucasus will suffer the same fate as their comrades at Stalingrad. The Russian offensive is only in the early stages.' Flower of the Wehrmacht Perish The Red Star quotes a captured German general’s declaration that the flower of the Wehrmacht perished at Stalingrad. Many units consisted solely of officers. The bulk of those annihilated were mainly Prussians. Thousands of corpses littered tie streets, holding up military traffic. Thousands of ghost-like and fro. tbitten prisoners are still emerging from the cellars and dug-outs seeking to surrender. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent declares that the Red Army has thrown a vast ring around Rostov and cut the southern railway lines from the city into the Kuban and towards Salsk and also cut the main north line to Moscow at Kamenskaya, while the capture of Svatovo cuts the northwest connection and threatens the two remaining lines connecting. Rostov with the rest of Russia via Taganrog and Kharkov. It is now a race between the Russian columns from the south and the east to be the first to reach Hushchovck. where the last German-held railway from Krasnodar to Rostov joins t xmain line from Tikhoretsk. When this falls, the only way of retreat i e the Germans in the Caucasus will be across the Sea of Azov.