GRIP TIGHTENING

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22471, 5 January 1943, Page 3

GRIP TIGHTENING

Flight Of Germans In

Russia

Serious Oil Shortage

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn— Copyrigh (9.15 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4.

The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” describes the plight of the Germans around Stalingrad, whose encirclement, which was planned by M. Stalin, is gradually tightening. Russian snipers often observe Germans crawling in no-man’s-land to cut meat from dead horses. Prisoners state that their food comprised only a few ounces of horse soup and a little bread daily. Letters recovered from shot down German transport planes reveal growing despair. There is evidence that the Germans are reorganising the encircled units, and of the suggested flight of officers, including General von Galent, due to the merging of depleted or nonexistent divisions. A plane carrying 23 of General Galent’s staff was shot down in the battle for Khotovo. There has been evidence of the strength of the Russian artillery, which was a notable factor in the successful advances. The Germans were in strong positions on the bank of the Terek River and the southern outskirts of

Khotovo, but the Russians brought up guns over almost impassable roads and put many enemy firing points out of action after a two-hour bombardment. After this Russian infantry infiltrated into the streets and routed the Germans.

Military commentators in London regard the capture of Mozdok as confirmation of the Russian exploitation of the initiative. The fact that the Germans were driven out so easily from Khotovo and Mozdok suggests that there is a general German drift westward. which the Russian pressure is accelerating. The Russians are still giving the Germans no rest on any sector of the far-flung front. German resistance to the Russian drive on Nalchik is collapsing. Street fighting is going on in one of three villages forming a powerful German strongpoint south-east of Nalchik, says Moscow radio.

It is reported from Stockholm that the German failure to capture the Caucasian oilfields has led to a serious fuel situation in Germany, where the mass conversion of farm machinery and lorries to producer gas is going on. The Germans forced Hungry to hand over 500,900 gallons of fuel reserve during the summer.