RELIEF COMING FROM NORTH

Southland Times, Issue 24860, 28 September 1942, Page 5

RELIEF COMING FROM NORTH

Drive Towards City (Rec. 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, Sept 27. Marshal Semion Timoshenkos forces at Stalingrad are fighting against time, because while the defenders are holding out, a relieving Russian Army from the north is driving towards the city. The German High Command has admitted that the relieving force has pierced the German main positions on the hills northward of Stalingrad. The Russian Army newspaper Red -Star declares: “The German forces at Stalingrad are wearing out. It is possible for us to hold them.” There are signs that the Germans are getting near the point of exhaustion, says Reuters Moscow correspondent The German screen between the Russian defenders and the relieving army has become thinner. The next few days, even the next 24 hours, may turn the balance either way. The fighting is so entangled in some Stalingrad districts that the Germans have been forced to give up bombing for fear of slaughtering their own troops. The Germans tanks at first took advantage of Stalingrad’s broad boulevards for massed onslaughts, but the Russians destroyed 20 or 30 tanks daily, forcing the enemy to modify his methods. The Volga “Little- Navy” of gunboats nightly escorts supplies across the river, while the. Volga flotilla called “floating tanks,” which has been reinforced with larger guns, maintains a ceaseless supporting barrage against the German lines. Moscow radio says the Russians at Mozdok are taking advantage of dense fogs for regrouping and surprise attacks. A Russian submarine attacked a Rumanian convoy in the Black Sea and sank the destroyer Marasesti. SECOND FRONT NEEDS U.S. Output Behind Schedule NEW YORK, September 26. The Wall Street Journal’s Washington correspondent says that two developments raise the question of whether a second front will be possible even in 1943: — (1) United States war production is lagging behind schedule. The Army and Navy months ago told the War Production Board what was needed for a second front. The board, however, reported that production was behind schedule in June, July and August. Therefore, some officials doubt whether the second front material will be ready by the spring of 1943. (2) A stalemate on the Eastern Front will redouble the task of opening a western front. 1 The immediate opening of a second front was demanded by Communist Party leaders at a large demonstration in Union Square in New York. The party secretary asserted that the great majority of American soldiers, both privates and officers, wanted a second front immediately. ENEMY SHIPS SUNK Mediterranean Successes (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 26. British submarines in the Mediterranean have inflicted further heavy losses on. the enemy sea communications, states an Admiralty communique. Five enemy supply ships have been sunk, two probably have been sunk and one hit by a torpedo and seriously damaged. One of the vessels sunk and one of those probably sunk were large ships. All the others were supply ships of medium tonnage. These recent successes have been achieved by five submarines. MAJOR-GENERAL LUMSDEN PROMOTED (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 26. Major-General H. Lumsden, who succeeded Lieutenant-General W. H. Gott as commander of the 30th Corps in the Middle East, and who was reported wounded earlier this month, has been granted the rank of lieutenantgeneral. He is 45 years of age and is one of the best horsemen in England. He rode several times in the Grand National. AMERICANS - DECORATED (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 26. Twenty members of the crews of the American bombers who battered the Italian Fleet in the action on June 15 have been presented by . the Com-mander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, and Major-General Lewis H. Brereton, commanding the United States Air Forces in the Middle East, with the first medals won by Americans in action in this theatre of war.