MORE MASS ATTACKS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 19 October 1942, Page 5

MORE MASS ATTACKS

Stalingrad's Critical Position ENEMY SUCCESS IN FACTORY AREA London, Oct. I 7. Stalingrad's position is more critical than since September and the Russian relieving army shows no signs of really breaking through. Marshal Timoshenko’s forces have withdrawn four times within 48 hours. The Germans at dawn on I 4th October started a systematic blitzing of Russian lines in the factory area with groups of 30 to 40 planes, completing 1 500 sorties by 5 p.m. On a mile-wide front huge German forces launched attack after attack against northern Stalingrad. The Germans, who forced the Russians from one of the workers’ settlements, tried to penetrate northwards and southwards from their lew positions but the Russians held these attacks. German planes and infantry combined in a ceaseless 72-hour assault against the workers’ settlement before the Russians fell back. Reuter s Moscow correspondent describes the captured suburb as part of an industrial district stretching miles along the bank of the Volga. Ihe Germans launched 25 successive attacks, sometimes using an entire division, supported by 100 tanks.

The final assault was made with two regiments of infantry plus 70 tanks. The Russians set 40 tanks ablaze before they withdrew. A front line dispatch to the newspaper “Izvestia” says Germans in north western Stalingrad appear to be using forces at least equal to the previous offensive when four infantry and one tank division assaulted the city. The German radio says German tanks and infantry penetrated into the Red Barricade factory and captured half the Red October factory and adds that mop-ping-up continues in the Spartakova workers’ settlement which was captured yesterday. APPROACH OF WINTER The Stockholm correspondent oi the “Daily Telegraph” says Hitler

must take Stalingrad within three weeks or not at all. Sleet storms and icy winds are already sweeping the steppes between the Don and the Volga. Supplies are becoming more and more a problem for the German High Command. Berlin sources state that Lieut. - General von Kotze was killed on the Russian front. NAZI CLAIMS IN CAUCASUS A German High Command communique states: “German and Slovak troops west of the Caucasus, despite fierce resistance, have gained considerable ground. Rumanians, with strong air support, dislodged the Russians from several mountain positions and took many prisoners.” The Berlin official news agency says German and Slovak troops captured the town of Shaumyan, 18 miles from Tuapse on the Maikop-Tuapse road and railway. Moscow radio claims that 13 Rumanian divisions, totalling more than 200,000 men were killed during summer on the Russian front. HEAVY GERMAN LOSSES German losses in the latest assault on Stalingrad are reported to be extremely heavy—so much so that speculation has been made in London as to whether the latest operations were decided upon by the German General Staff, or had been imposed on the Army by Hitler’s personal orders. Fighting in the Mosdok area is proving so costly that the Germans are unable to follow attack by attack but are forced to pause to regroup and bring up reinforcements before striking again. VOLGA CROSSING MAINTAINED The defenders of Stalingrad are maintaining the Volga crossing despite ceaseless fire from German artillery, trench mortars and air attacks, says a Moscow message. At one place 28,000 civilians have already crossed by one pontoon bridge constructed on benzine barrels. The pontoon als) served for the evacuation of wounded and the conveyance of about 7000 infantry reinforcements. The Ge-inans are trying desperately to sever this fragile lifeline by which Stalingrad is connected with the Russian mainland. The Luftwaffe dropped 740 demolition bombs and thousands of incendiaries, but the slight

damage caused has been quickly repaired. Ammunition and equipment continue to pour into the city over this precarious supply line pitching and tossing amid explosions of shells, bombs and mines. “Red Star” says: “In its vitality Soviet troops show a symbol of their own stamina and determination.” Very fierce fighting continues on the north side of Stalingrad where during a three-day battle the Germans lost 150 tanks. The enemy, however, is keeping up terrific pressure, concentrating most of his armoured forces and the Luftwaffe in this area. DEFENDER OF STALINGRAD Major-General Rodimtsev, the heroic defender of Stalingrad, recently had a narrow escape when an enemy tank nearly broke through to his command post 300 metres from the frontline. The tank flat-ironed the bunker housing the headquarters of Major-General Rodimtsev’s division, but the General and his staff were unhurt. Major-General Rodimtsev’s guardsmen are sent to the most dangerous spots in Stalingrad and more than once have saved the situation. At one place they repelled a charge by two divisions supported by 70 tanks, 42 of which were crippled by guardsmen. Major-General Rodimtsev is a 36-year-old graduate of the Kremlin Mili- 1 tary School and the Russian Academy. I He was a pupil of Marshal Shaposhnikov, the present chief of the Russian! General Staff. He fought as a volunteer! against Germans and Italians in Spain I and was promoted Major-General last year.—P.A. and 8.0. W.