ALMOST RESCUED

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15239, 4 January 1943, Page 3

ALMOST RESCUED

VON HOTH’S ARMY. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 2. How near the Germans were to . rescuing Von Hoth’s trapped divisions south-west of Stalingrad is told by tho Times Moscow correspondent. Von Manstoin’s drive on December 12 was only baited after a violent struggle on tbe River Aksai between the Don and the Stalingrad-Tikhoretsk railway. Powerful German forces using 600 tanks in 12 days at terrible cost advanced 36 miles. Tho Russian front sagged dangerously bub held and important Russian reinforcements arrived on Christmas Eve, enabling tbe count-er-offensive in which tlie tanks oncircled, ambushed and harried the enemy. The Red Army recovered in three days what it lost in twelve. Tanks and lorried infantry stormed Ivotelnikovo, completing the German defeat. The Germans had reached halfway to their objectives but before they were rolled back, they had lost more than 26,000 killed or captured. The Russian spearheads are relentlessly pushing tho Germans from Kotelnikovo to Salysk and nfe also apparently closing in on Rostov. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Germans are suffering heavy casualties north-east of Tuapse where they are losing ground especially tactically important heights. The Black Sea Air Arm is constantly supporting the Red Army by bombing the German front lines. After a night- dive-bomb-ing attack oir a German aerodrome Russian parachutists landed on the aerodrome and destroyed 13 planes ! and damaged 10