BELIEF OFFENSIVES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 258, 30 September 1942, Page 5

BELIEF OFFENSIVES

RUSSIANS GAIN GROUND. NAZI FRONTAL BLOW. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, Sept. 28. Marshal Timoshenko is reported to be launching double relief offensives in order to ease the German pressure on Stalingrad. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent says the Russians are keeping at the new attack south of Stalingrad, using forces brought across the Volga. The Russian relief offensive from the north-west has made headway and somewhat relieved the strain on Stalingrad’s defenders, enabling the Russians to shift reinforcements across the Volga. The conditions inside Stalingrad are clearly becoming still more difficult, despite the gallant relief efforts. German infantry divisions and tanks flung against a workers’ settlement in north-western Stalingrad made progress in the face of bitterest opposition. The Daily Express’s Stockholm correspondent reports that Marshal Timoshenko drew troops from Astrakhan for a counter-offensive south-west of Stalingrad, where the Germans are reported already to be yielding ground in the outlying suburbs. The Germans appear to have opened a new mass frontal attack on Stalingrad from the west which for some days has been a very quiet sector, says the Daily Telegraph. The Red Air Force is attacking. enemy concentrations west of the city. Russian troops north-west of Stalingrad recaptured two populated places and reached the Don’s east bank. The whole area between the Volga and the Don is again ablaze. The Germans were found to be deeply entrenched and well fortified. The Russians, in one small sector destroyed 42 pill-boxcs before they could advance. The Pravda says the Russians have improved their anti-tank technique in this area, putting enemy tanks opt of action without support from their

own tanks. The Stefani (Rome) News Agency states that the Russians are strongly fortifying Astrakhan, where they have constructed a secret underground oil pipe-line. Marshal Timoshenko recently inspected Astrakhan, towards which a Rumanian-German column is progressing across the Kalmuk steppes. The Berlin radio reported violent air battles over Murmansk in the past two days. The air activity presumably links up with the recent arrival of the convoy at Murmansk. The Moscow radio announced that a woman fighter pilot, Lieutenant Varelia Khomyakova, shot down a Ju 88 bomber which approached a military objective at night. According to a Stockholm report von Keuchler has succeeded von Leeb in command of the North Russian front. There are indications that lie is preparing a gigantic offensive against Leningrad. Repeated Russian bombings of Koenigsberg are reported to be connected with a mass movement* of reinforcements for Keuchler’s armies.