SECOND OILFIELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1942, Page 3

SECOND OILFIELD

MENACED BV GERMANS POSSIBILITIES OF RUSSIAN COUNTERSTROKE. WITH GERMANS ENTANGLED IN CAUCASUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 10. The Russians are still falling back before slashing German blows in the Caucasian foothills between Maikop and the south-east. It is clear the Germans are determined to exert all pressure to cut ofl'*the Grozny oil centre, and they then hope to complete the severance of the Russian armies and air forces from the main oilfield (Baku) by occupying Makhachkala, on the Caspian. The Russians have not yet announced the fall of Krasnodar or Maikop, which were claimed by the Germans at the weekend, but their loss can generally be expected. The Germans have now added Pyatigorsk, 150 miles northwest of Grozny, to the list of their Caucasian claims, adding that advanced units of the fast-moving army are already striking eastward along the Terek River. The news is brighter from the Russian front elewhere, with stiff fighting reported from Kletskaya, inside the Don elbow, and also outside the Don elbow north-east of Kotelnikovo. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” reports that the Germans have encountered determined resistance at many points in the Krasnodar and Armavir areas, but the Russians appear to have transferred their heavy armour to the Volga, maybe in the belief that it would be unsuitable for mountain warfare. THREAT FROM CRIMEA. The present position on the Sea of Azov, he says, is not clear, but the indications are that the Russians have fallen back to the Black Sea, probably to Novorossisk and also round the mouth of the Kuban River on the Taman Peninsula. Reports from German sources suggest that the Germans may attempt a movement on the mainland from the east in order to capture a bridgehead near the Kerch Straits, after which the fresh army from the Crimea could pour into the Caucasian struggle. The Russians, aware of this possibility, point out that the time would be most propitious for a Russian coun-ter-offensive anywhere from Voronezh to the Baltic as soon as the German army from the Crimea is entangled in the Caucasus.

The “News Chronicle” correspondent in Moscow says there is evidence that the Russian army between the Don and the Kuban Rivers is now largely cut off from the east. They are fighting under exceptionally difficult circumstances against an enemy enjoying numerical superiority in almost every weapon and with a quick and safe supply route. The Berlin radio tonight reports that Rumanian cavalry took the town of Yeisk, 70 miles south-west of Rostov. This is the twentieth day of the fighting in the Don bend, and the Germans have not yet succeeded in breaking out of it and over the river toward Stalingrad.