ADMIRABLE TENACITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 263, 6 October 1942, Page 5

ADMIRABLE TENACITY

RUSSIAN RELIEF EFFORTS. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, Oct. 4. The continued Russian southward advance against the German corridor between the Don and the Volga is becoming a factor of increasing importance in the general framework of this vast and momentous battle, says the Moscow correspondent of the Times. The Russians are gnawing with admirable tenacity at the corridor’s tough defences. The Russians have advanced slightly on a broad front south-west of Stalingrad and are also edging forward south of the city.

The correspondent says that neither side dare ease the pressure. The collapse of any single sector would imperil the whole Russian position, while the slightest German faltering would unleash the Russians, who are infused with th 3 fighting spirit and are eager to press forward from their narrow confines. In smashing a Rumanian regiment south of Stalingrad, the Russians advanced on a wide front and regained the ground they lost on Friday. They crushed several counter-attacks and destroyed many dozens of tanks. The Germans arc bitterly contesting every foot northwest of Stalingrad, where the Russians in 24 hours advanced 200 yards on one sector, taking the first line of German trenches only after many days of fierce hammering in which they killed 1000 Germans and destroyed 25 tanks.

The Daily Telegraph's Moscow correspondent says grim battles raged incessantly yesterday and last night for the north-western factory suburb. The Germans left this strong area with modern factories and blocks of brick or concrete workers' dwellings until the last, but are now in a hurry to blitz their way across it. The Russians are so skilful in street fighting and also so steady in containing the heaviest thrusts that the Germans are finding increasing difficulty in maintaining the pace of their thrust. BATTLE IN A VALLEY. Lighting in the Mozdok area in the Caucasus has now been going on for six days in a valley between high hills. The Germans first attacked with big mechanised concentrations and lost more than 100 machines and several thousand men without appresiable gains. They arc now using smaller units, but tl.e battle’s violence is unabated.

A German communique claims that the Germans south of Terek in the South-East Caucasus have captured the strongly-fortified towns of Elchotovo and Verchni. Foiled in their attempts to drive along the Black Sea coast south of Novorossisk, the former Russian naval base, the Germans are now attempting to strike towards the Black Sea from the basin of the Kuban River, thus cutting off the Russians south of Novorossisk. Major engagements arc occurring on the southern edge of the Ivuban basin in the wooded Caucasian foothills. German arson crews arc attempting to smoke out the Russians by setting fire to the forests. Dense clouds of smoke arc drifting over the combatants.

Soviet marines south-east of Novorossisk in two days recaptured 14 important heights and several inhabited localities and wiped out 1000 enemy troops, the enemy retreating in disorder in one sector.

The Luftwaffe is making as many as 300 sorties a day, mainly against Russian artillery, which is again the backbone of t.be defence. Forests and billy terrain force the German tanks to "keep to the roads, where frequently they are sitting shots for the Russian guns.

The Moscow radio says the Russians on the Moscow front have driven the Germans from an important strategic „height. The Germans five times unsuccessfully counter-attacked and lost 700 killed and 18 tanks in one attack.