IN POWER OF RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1942, Page 3

IN POWER OF RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Germans Resisting Desperately

BUT DISORGANISED AND DEMORALISED IN MANY PLACES

MUCH MORE THAN RELIEF OF STALINGRAD IN PROSPECT ' LONDON, November 26. In spite of stiffening German resistance, Marshal Timoshenko’s great southern offensive is still making progress in every sector as it enters on its second week. The Germans are fighting desperate defensive battles. The Moscow correspondent of the London “ News-Chron-icle,” Paul Winterton, says that the Germans in many areas appear to be disorganised and demoralised. At some points their defences have been overrun, with the result that Russian tanks and mechanised forces have been able to penetrate deeply into the soft centres of enemy positions. The enemy retreat frequently is disorderly and vast quantities of material are being left undestroyed for the Russians. Russian aircraft are making successful raids far into the enemy’s rear, wrecking his communications and supply bases. The fact that the Russians are able to operate so far in the enemy’s rear shows how completely the German grip has been relaxed. West of Stalingrad, many small German groups are encircled. The whole city front in Stalingrad shows new activity. The Germans are being steadily driven from positions won by them at great cost in past weeks. Winterton says that to expect nothing more than the relief of -Stalingrad would be pessimistic. The main Soviet advance isi along the railway west from Stalingrad and towards the ■main Rostov railway. On this line the Russians advanced 25 miles yesterday and last night. With at least 250,000 Axis troops killed, captured, wounded or dispersed, the Russian offensive is increasing in tempo. Their advance has already carried them 100 miles at some points, and today they are continuing to press the Axis forces back southward, threatening* to throw into chaos the whole communications of the Kuban and Caucasian armies. The whole north-eastern portion of the Don elbow is now under the domination of Marshal Timoshenko’s massive forces, and as the Russian fury thrusts southward the cream of the Wehrmacht, namely, German Army Group 8., faces a threat of annihilation. The roads from Stalingrad are clogged with thousands of routed troops fleeing in disorder to escape encirclement in the Stalingrad-Don pocket. A confused stream of lorries, crammed with shock troops, columns of weary trudging infantry, and armoured cars and supply vehicles are pouring out through the gap that is still left between the claws of the Russian pincers. These forces are being prodded in the rear by the defenders of Stalingrad, who, with supplies coming in by land from the north, are now dealing out from every section of the city the same steam-hammer blows that they themselves have withstood for three months. The Russians have also moved up powerful artillery with incredible speed on the flanks of the fleeing Axis armies. Guns of all calibres are pouring in a hail of steel, dotting the roads of the retreat with burning lorries and scattered, shell-torn corpses. The German rearguards are putting up desperate resistance to save the main body of their troops in the Stalingrad offensive, but there is no stemming the advance, which in some places has passed the retreating forces. .