VITAL KEY POINTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1942, Page 4

VITAL KEY POINTS

MAINTENANCE ESSENTIAL TO CONTINUANCE OF SOVIET WAR EFFORT. ON AN EFFECTIVE SCALE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON. August 11. Stalingrad, Astrakan and Baku, are now regarded as the key points for the Russians to hold if Russia is going to remain ?.n effective factor in the war. It is now apparent that Marshal Timoshenko’s North Caucasian forces were weaker than was expected, for which reason, when the Germans exploited successful surprise tactics, Marshal Timoshenko had to choose between either defending the North Caucasus or concentrating everything possible for the defence of the Volga. He managed, by successful withdrawals, to keep the largest proportion of his armies intact, and his decision to protect the Volga is regarded in London as being undoubtedly sound. The Lower Volga is one of the most important Russian supply routes and the sole remaining route by which oil from Baku car. be transported in considerable quantities to the interior. If the Russians can hold Stalingrad, Astrakan and Baku, then the all-im-portant flow of oil can be maintained. Stalingrad is the key town of the whole Volga region, dominating Russia’s greatest waterway which, even in peace time, used to carry no less than 30,000,000 tons of freight annually. It has been one of the most vital reception areas for factories evacuated from the west last year. It is also a great munition dump for the whole southern front.

NAZI PROGRESS TOWARDS BLACK SEA PORTS. REPORTED BY VICHY. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 11. The Vichy radio declared that the spearhead of a German column advancing from Krasnodar is now 40 or 50 miles from. Novorossisk and that advanced units of another column, from Maikop, are thirty miles from Tuapse. German forces which occupied Pyatigorsk are stated to have passed Prokhladnaya where they split. One group is now in the Mosdok region and the other near the industrial centre of Ordzhonoidze, 50 miles south-west of Grosny. GERMAN CLAIMS SOVIET ARMY SAID TO FACE ANNIHILATION. (Receiveci This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, August 11. A German communique claims that the Russians in the Maikop area have been thrown back in several sectors. In the mountains, a Russian army, west of Kalach, has been driven together in a narrow base, it is added, and faces annihilation. The communique reports heavy defensive fight.ng in the Rzhev area, where the Russians yesterday attacked with fresh reinforcements. The Berlin radio claims that German advanced units have entered Georgievsk (a railway town about midway between Maikop and Grosny).