NEW BIG ATTACK ON STALINGRAD

Southland Times, Issue 24862, 30 September 1942, Page 5

NEW BIG ATTACK ON STALINGRAD

Enemy Formations West Of City (Rec. 9.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 28. The Germans appear to have opened a new mass frontal attack on Stalingrad from the west, which for some days has been a very quiet sector, says The Daily Telegraph. ■ The Red Air Force is attacking enemy concentrations west of the city. , x The Stockholm correspondent of The Daily Express reports that Marshal Semion Timoshenko drew troops from Astrakhan for a counter-offensive south-west of Stalingrad, where the Germans are reported to be. already yielding ground in the outlying suburbs. X The Stefani News Agency (Rome) stated that the Russians are strongly fortifying Astrakhan, where they have constructed a secret underground oil pipe line. Marshal Timoshenko recently inspected Astrakhan, towards which a Rumanian-German column is progressing across the Kalmuk Steppes. According to a Stockholm report Field-Marshal von Keuchler has succeeded Field-Marshal Wilhelm yon Leeb in command of the North Russian front. There are indications that he is preparing a gigantic offensive against Leningrad. Repeated Russian bombings of Konigsberg (capital of East Prussia) are reported to be connected with the 1 mass movement of reinforcements for I Field-Marshal von Keuchler’s armies.. I Berlin radio reported violent air battles over Murmansk on the past two fdays. The air activity presumably links up with the recent arrival of the j convoy at Murmansk. | Moscow radio announced that a , woman fighter pilot, Lieutenant Varelia {Khomyakova, shot down a Junkers 88 1 bomber which approached a military j objective at night.

RUSSIAN_WINTER GREAT DIFFERENCES IN CLIMATE (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 2S. Now that the prospect of winter once more Casts a shadow over the German offensive in Russia, estimates are being made in London of the degree to which military operations are likely to be affected in the various parts of the front. It is pointed out that the front covers an area which shows differences in climate as great as those between Britain and Algeria. The Stalingrad area is normally very dry, especially in the autumn. The snowfall being usually slight operations might continue on the lower Don and Volga throughout the winter, except for the intense cold. In the Caucasus mountains snow is likely to prevent operations in the passes from about the third week in October, but along the coasts of the Black Sea and the Caspian at no time is the weather alone likely to be an obstacle. In the central areas operations are expected to be seriously hampered by heavy snows and hard frosts about the end of November. Last year, which was one of the most severe winters ever known, the severe weather began about a month earlier than usual. In the Leningrad region, while the autumn is usually wet enough to affect operations from the middle ot September, heavy snow and low temperatures prevail from about early November.