MORE AIR ACTIVITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 229, 29 September 1942, Page 5

MORE AIR ACTIVITY

BATTLES OVER STALINGRAD GERMANS FORCED UNDERGROUND IN RJEV HURRICANE OF DEATH (Special Australian Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) (Recd. 7.5 p.m.) London, Sept. 27. The Red Air Force was recently strongly reinforced, says the Moscow correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, and air battles at Stalingrad are now as great as anything previously seen in Russia. From 40 to 60 German bombers often attack a narrow sector, as many as 20 dropping all their bombs simultaneously on one point. Russian fighter planes are doing their utmost to paralyse the Germans in the field, and the heavily-cannoned Stormovik is doinggreat work. The Red Air Force in the last few days has been very active against German formations west of Stalingrad, and also against crossings over the Don.

Moscow radio declared that ‘German counter-attacks were repulsed west of the Don elbow. At Voronej 1800 Germans were pviped out. The radio also reported the killing of 260 Germans sand the destruction of ten mortar •batteries in fierce hand-to-hand fighting west of Moscow. Berlin radio said: “German defences have gone under the ground in the Rjev area. The earfh is the only safe place in that hurricane of death. The Russians are incessantly attacking but we retain our < positions.’’ The Stockholm correspondent of 1 The Times reports that the Russians I .surged forward from the Lovat River. I • between the Kholm marshes and Lake 1 Ilmen, and crossed the Polista River. 'The Germans now refer to battles south-west instead of south-east of Lake Ilmen. German counter-attacks have dominated the Sinyavino area fighting in .the past few days. Battles are raging in the Mosdok area with undiminished ferocity. Sev • eral fierce German attacks were repulsed in the last 24 hours. The enemy suffered heavy losses but were unable to improve their positions. , Despite huge losses the German drive against Stalingrad is not los- • ing strength and the position remains tense, according to Pravda. Bitter actions are progressing on outskirts of the city. The enemy flung j in crack divisions in these sectors and ■ airliners are rushing up more reinforcements. The Germans are trying at all costs; to cut Stalingrad in twain and disorganise the Russian defence. German losses are immense. One infantry division in the last ten days . lost 3300 men, 25 guns and 65 ■ machine-guns. A panzer division'

which was in support lost 56 tanks . and armoured cars. A Russian Guards unit holding a vital sector destroyed 28 tanks and is now stoutly holding the Germans. ’ The Russians in another area took the offensive near a small height, improved their positions and killed 300. The Russians inside Stalingrad dislodged the Germans from two streets and consolidated their positions, but the Germans in some other sectors also unproved their positions. Stalingrad’s detenders last night. • with tanks and tommy-guns, forced i their way into the wedge the Ger- j mans drove into the city area on the I evening of September 26, recaptured ; streets and eliminated the wedge, says the Stockholm correspondent oi th? I Daily Express. Von Bock brought up reserves by land and air and restored the strength i of his army to 1,000.000 men. Elite air ; squadrons were also brought in from ', other fronts, and are making 100') sorties daily. The Russians north-west of Stalin-. grad seized a line of blockhouses. The i Germans 17 times unsuccesfully counter-attacked in an effort to recapture them. GRIM STRUGGLES IN STALINGRAD (Recd. 7.5 p.m.) Rugby, Sept. 26. Russian warships in the Black Sea sank a 2000-tcn transport. The Gei • mans in the past week lost 206 planes 1 and the Russians 156, says the Russia), supplementary communique. Particularly tierce fighting took place in the Stalingrad area, when the Germans in one sector succeeded in pushing slightly forward. Grim' struggles proceed for every house. I North-west of the city the Russians' continued active operations, repelling counter-attacks. Some sectors in on? unit killed 2500 enemy and seized much material. On another sector ot this front German infantry and tanks eight times attacked and eight times were repulsed. A number of tanks were destroyed. On one sector of the | Caucasus front the Russians withdrew in one locality under numerical pressure. Russian pilots in the Mosdok area, where fierce fighting is proceeding, twice attacked an enemy aerodrome and destroyed 11 planes. In the Sinyavino area the Russians mopped up enemy groups which had driven a wedge* into their lines. North of Voronej the Russians entirely cleared a small forest where an engagement had been going on for several a ays. The enemy left 1673 corpses and much material.—B.O.W. german Wastage AMERICAN WRITER’S ESTIMATE New York, Sept. 27. Major Eliot, writing in the New ■ York Herald-Tribune, estimates the German force attacking Stalingrad at 55 divisions, of which 45 are infantry. He says that if the scientific tables Used by the United States army were applied to a force of this size, attacking a similar objective. 23.266 dead per week must be anticipated, which figure is startling close to the Russian official estimates of the German losses of 25,000 a week. Furthermore, according to military theory, 169.000 wounded are anticipated’ weekly. This means that Hitler must replace at least 190,000 men in the Stalingrad sector alone every week, while, il the entire Russian front is considered, the Germans must replace about 350.000 a week. In a normal year the total number of German military conscripts is 600,000 to 700,000. therefore the Nazi High Command is using up its year’s supply of man-power every fortnight on the Russian front, at the present rate of fighting.

NOT ACHIEVED NAZI SUMMER AIMS

Rugby, Sept. 27. The Germans have at least a million men fighting in and near Stalingrad, as well as several thousand tanks and aircraft, according to Mr. Alexandrov, !he Soviet propaganda chief. With this concentration the Germans planned to establish a front from Stalingrad to the Caspian Sea along the Volga, after which they would launch a new offensive against Moscow and then against Britain. With the Black Sea ports of Tuapse, Sochi, and Poti still in Soviet hands, Mr. Alexandrov asserts, the Germans j have failed to achieve their summer aims on the southern front. j Enumerating conditions for ultimate victory over the German army, Mr. Alexandrov says: “The time is not far distant when our allies will bring into action their armies against the common enemy.” The growing activity of guerrillas is also cited as a factor which will bring victory to the Red Army. Later news from Stalingrad is that Soviet tanks are most active in the new phase of the street battles, in which they are often wresting the I initiative from the Germans. Soviet j tanks are crashing into German ma-chine-gun nests at first-storey windows. The German tanks avoid direct combat, but crawl behind the infantry, who attack the Soviet tanks with explosives. Russian sources do not substantiate the German claim to have advanced as far as the Volga under the support of dive-bombers. Moscow reports that the Germans in one sector at Stalingrad succeeded, at a cost heavy in losses, in penetrating the Russian defence lines. Russians are fiercely engaged in trying to mop up this group. In the Mozdok area, two enemy infantry regiments, supported by 60 tanks, were checked, with heavy German losses, by a Russian counter-at-tack. nine tanks being destroyed and two infantry companies being wiped out. South-east of Novorossisk stubborn fighting took place for one height. Three hundred enemy officers and men were killed, and much booty was captured. Soviet artillery routed one enemy company which attempted to drive a wedge into the Russian defence lines. On the north-western front there have been engagements of local importance. -8.0.W.