"STALINGRAD WILL HOLD"

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 265, 8 October 1942, Page 5

"STALINGRAD WILL HOLD"

MANY DESPERATE ATTACKS. LONDON, Oct. 6. The opinion is hardening that Stalingrad will hold out till the winter, when the freezing of the Volga may open a new phase. The freezing of the river would facilitate Russian military traffic across the Volga, but it might also enable the _ Germans to develop an encircling movement. Turkish military circles are of the opinion that if the resistance at Stalingrad is prolonged Germany will have lost the decisive battle of 1942, which will possibly bo equivalent to losing the entire war. The Daily Telegraph's Moscow correspondent says that German prisoners confirm that Hitler, in a message to the troops, told them to storm the centre of Stalingrad if they did not wish to spend the winter on the frozen steppe. Tho Germans have never attacked so desperately, so incessantly, or in such force as they did yesterday, and never have they failed so completely. The Russians did not lose a single position in 24 hours of incessant fighting.

Tlio correspondent 4 says that the Russians are gaining time of inestimable value for Stalingrad, for Moscow, for Baku, for Russia, and for a general victory. They are keeping up one of tho world's most decisive battles till help shall come. The Russian News Agency says that the Russians at Stalingrad have captured a secret report by the chief surgeon of the 15th German Division calling attention to a sharp increase of self-inflicted wounds among the German troops. Moscow reports that the Russians advanced 15 miles on the Voronezh front and captured a number of fortified centres.