“ACCORDING TO PLAN”

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXI, Issue 15236, 29 December 1942, Page 3

“ACCORDING TO PLAN”

GERMAN CLAIM IN CAUCASUS RETREAT. ; United Press Assn —By Electric Telegraph—Cony rig in, LONDON, Dec. 28. j The Germans in the Caucasus arc also still falling back near Nalchik. I The Germans admit this but claim : it is a retirement “according to plan.” j Near Rjev 40- per cent of a Ger- , man regiment, including its commander, were killed before with- : drawing. ; Summing up the situation in Rus- : sia, a commentator, Lieutenant-Col-, onel Vassilir, says that more and i more Russians are joining in the offensive, and it is the Red Army, not the Germans, which is seeking out the weak spots and striking when it is most opportune. Hitler, instead of regrouping and resting his troops, is continually rushing them from sector to sector in an effort to stop the.gaps, he said. Reuter's Moscow correspondent describes the capture of 350 German planes at Tatsinskaya as a. very, significant incident. Russian tank columns clashed down on the town which was a German strong hold, cutting the railway to tinnorth and south. The German garrison fled southwards where Russian tanks and motorised troops v. ore awaiting them. The Russians discovered of) planes in a train en route for a rendezvous where the Luftwaffe was massing to attack the Russian flank, but before the Germans could be informed of the situation the Russians had reached the rendezvous, capturing 300 planes on an airfield, intact with crews.