POSITION STILL TENSE

Southland Times, Issue 24861, 29 September 1942, Page 5

POSITION STILL TENSE

Effort To Cut City In Two (Rec. 12.5 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 28. Despite huge losses, flie German drive against Stalingrad is not losing its strength and the position remains tense, according to the Moscow newspaper Pravda. Bitter actions are progressing on the outskirts of the city. The enemy flung in crack divisions in these sectors and air-liners are rustling up more reinforcements. The Germans are trying, at all costs to cut Stalingrad in twain and disorganize the Russian defence, l.ne German losses are immense. One infantry division in the last 10 days has lost 3300 men, 25 guns and 65 machineguns. A panzer division which was in support lost 56 tanks and armoured cars. A Russian Guards’ unit holding a vital sector destroyed 28 tanks and is now stoutly holding the Germans. The Russians in another .area.took the offensive near a small height, improved their positions and killed 300 Germans. The Russians inside Stalingrad dislodged the Germans from two streets and consolidated their positions, but the Germans in some other sectors also improved their positions. Stalingrad’s defenders last night with, tanks and tommy-guns forced their way into the wedge the Germans drove into the city area on Saturday evening, recaptured streets and eliminated the wedge, says The Daily Express’s Stockholm correspondent. Field-Marshal von Bock brought up reserves by land and air and restored the strength of his army to 1,000,000 men. Elite air squadrons were also brought in from other fronts and are making a thousand sorties daily. The Russians north-west of Stalingrad seized a line of block-houses. The Germans 17 times unsuccessfully counter-attacked in an effort to recapture them. LOSSES HEAVY REPLACEMENTS NEW YORK, September 27. Major George Fielding Eliot, the well known military correspondent of The New York Herald Tribune, estimates that the total German force attacking Stalingrad is 55 divisions (about 850,000 men), of which 45 are infantry divisions. He says that if the scientific tables used by the United States Army are applied to a force of this size attacking a similar objective 23,266 dead a ■ week must be anticipated. This figure is startlingly close to the Russian official estimates of the German losses of 25,000 men a week. Furthermore, he says, according to military theory, 169,000 wounded must be anticipated each week. This means that Hitler must replace at least 190,000 men in the Stalingrad sector alone every week. If the entire Russian front is considered the Germans must replace about 350,000 men a week. In a normal year the total number of German military conscripts is between 600,000 and 700,000. Therefore the Nazi High Command is using up a year’s supply of man-power every fortnight on the Russian front at the present rate of fighting. M. Alexandrov, the Soviet Propaganda Chief, has also discussed the aspect of the campaign dealt with by Major Eliot. He says that the Germans have at least 1,000,000 men fighting in and near Stalingrad, as well as- several thousand tanks and aircraft. COMPARISON WITH VERDUN Comparing Stalingrad with Verdun in the last war die says: “Whereas there were only 500,000 men against Verdun there are still 1,000,000 Germans concentrated against Stalingrad. Verdun was besieged only by infantry and artillery. The Germans today are throwing several thousands of tanks and aircraft against Stalingrad, as well as infantry. The Verdun position was eased because the Germans were forced to transfer troops to Russia. The Russians in Stalingrad are alone and the Germans are ceaselessly throwing in troops from Western Europe, where they are not opposed. The Russians, nevertheless, are defending Stalingrad stubbornly, are bleeding the German divisions white and are thus preparing the ground for the Germans’ ultimate undoing.” With this concentration against Stalingrad, he says, the Germans planned to establish a front from Stalingrad to the Caspian Sea along the Volga. . After this they planned to launch a new offensive against Moscow and then against Britain. With the Black Sea ports of Tuapse, Sochi and Poti still in Soviet hands, however, M. Alexandrov asserts that the Germans have failed to achieve their summer aims on the southern the conditions for ultimate victory over the German Army, M Alexandrov says: “The time is not far distant when our Allies will bring into action their armies against the common enemy." He cites also the growing activity of guerrillas as a factor which will bring victory to the Red Army.