FURY UNDIMINISHED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 256, 28 September 1942, Page 2

FURY UNDIMINISHED

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD. (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Rec. 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 27. A Moscow claim that 5000 Germans have been killed in the various Stalingrad sectors during the week-end indicates that the battle for the city is raging with undiminished intensity. The Russians made slight further progress .in their drive from the north and also recaptured several strongly garrisoned houses in the north-western suburbs, but the Germans strengthened their grip

on the southern part of the city. The German military spokesman said: "The greatest part of Southern Stalingrad is in our hands, although every ruin still offers desperate local resistance. The hardest fighting is going on in Central Stalingrad, where we captured six big buildings on the Volga bank, thus breaking the backbone of the Russian resistance in this area. The toughest Russian resistance is centred on three enormous croups of factories in Northern Stalingrad, which the Russians have transformed into incredibly strong fortresses: The factories arc on a height dominating the city and are . defended with the heaviest gunfire."

Th© spokesman admitted that the Russians penetrated the main German defence line north of the city, but claimed that they were cut off and annihilated.

The Stockholm correspondent of the Times reports that the Germans launched five more counter-attacks in an attempt to dislodge the Russians from the ground gained in the drive towards Stalingrad from the north. The counter-strokes have not achieved a positive success and a virtual deadlock has thus been reached, in which both sides are pounding each other with guns of all calibres. RIBBENTROP'S VERSION.

"We are confident of winning the battle for Stalingrad," said von Ribbenbrdp in a speech on the second anniversary of the three-Power pact. "When we'takc Stalingrad our most dangerous antagonist will suffer a blow wherefrom he will never reeoyer. We are. ready for .more Dieppes. A serohd front attempt is no longer able to check Russia's inecreasing paralysis."

Ribbentrop predicted greater efforts to prevent British and American supplies reaching Russia. "Twothirds of Russia's supplies of grain and meat, the whole of her sugar, and 60 per cent, of her coal have been seized. Russia has lost 90,000,000 inhabitants through our territorial "gains. Her losses in dead, wounded and prisoners total about 14,000, 000. Russia is nearing exhaustion in manpower, food and raw materials. By the conquest of the Ukraine and the Kuban, the food situation for the whole of Europe is secured for the future.

"All Europe is one armament factory working for us. Against 190",000,000 people in England and America from which they can draw skilled workers—pins the remainder of the decimated Russian workers — the Axis lias 450,000,000 at their disposal. The future will show whether Mr Churchill's bomb warfare against the civilian population was a good or bad idea. Every single bomb, every home destroyed, and every dead person make the Germans more determined to make the British pay. The time will come when we will deal i finally with this 'British aircraftcarrier off Europe'. "The Tripartite Pact was concluded firstly as a warning to the United States. As President Roosevelt and his Jewish warmongering clique continue to drive the Americans against theii will to war, it is necessary that they should know with whom they have to deal. "The Axis is in every respect now master of the situation. The Russian war has not exhausted the Axis; on the contrary it has hardened it and made it secure everywhere. We shall continue striking against Russia until all danger of the threat to Europe from Bolshevism is abolished. "In the Mediterranean and North Africa we shall give the British .no rest. In Western Europe large armies stand ready to nip in the bud all landing attempts. Time is now definitely working for the Tripartite Powers."