RUSSIANS HIT BACK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 242, 14 October 1942, Page 5

RUSSIANS HIT BACK

REFUSE TO PLAY HITLER’S GAME IN STALINGRAD DEFENCE THREE HOT MEALS DAILY FOR RED ARMY SOLDIERS (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Recd. 7.50 p.m.) London. Oct. 12. The Russians refuse to play Hitler’s game at Stalingrad. Instead of grateful!}' accepting the lull in the German ground attacks and resigning themselves to endure the constant shelling and bombing, they are hitting back. In many small sectors they are bayoneting' Germans from houses and forcing' the tired enemy to maintain a most active defence. .It is not yet clear whether the Gormans are using the lull for building up a new striking force before Stalingrad or diverting

IJllllt.llllg up d IIvVV NIIMIJg LUI shock forces to the Caucasus. Berlin reports mention fighting in snowstorms near the Black Sea coast, which emphasises Hitler’s need for speed if lie desires to force a passage over the Caucasian Mountains before winter in order to secure a jumping-off ground for a Middle East drive in conjunction with a renewed offensive in Egypt.

German reinforcements still coming up to Stalingrad may be defensive groups intended to replace shock troops diverted elsewhere, but the Russians are not taking chances. They are constantly strengthening the defences and feeding men and materials into the city across the Volga. It is revealed that underground factories throughout the siege turned out munitions and repaired tanks and vehicles. Berlin radio claims the Germans are maintaining their advance towards Tuapse along the road from Armoir, and also claims that bridgeheads on the Terek River have all been linked up. The Mayor of Moscow made the statement that the city was not taking chances but was preparing for a possible German offensive. Defences are constantly being strengthened and anti-aircraft defences increased. The population in the last six months has increased by 400,000 to 3,200,000. “We are determined that the people will get warmth and also essential food, transport, electricity, gas, hospitals, baths, theatres and cinemas,”

he said. “Eighty thousand wood-cut-ters have been mobilised, chiefly women. They are doing wonderfully, but transport is the main problem. We are well supplied with food, which is stored throughout the city to prevent undue loss in air raids.”

The Times’ correspondent reports that members of the Red Army get three hot meals daily, German soldiers only one.

The Germans for breakfast get bread, margarine, and tea or ersatz coffee. The Russians get a basin of hot pea or rice soup. For dinner the Germans get hot potato soup and mashed potatoes. The Russians get soup, meat or fish and vegetables. For supper the Germans get the same as for breakfast, the Russians get porridge, peas, often herrings, and tea.

The Russians seldom miss their meals, even in the heaviest engagements. There are many inconspicuous heroes among the cooks and food carriers. Junior commanders take turns at kitchen duty, where they see that the correct quantities of food are put into the cookers. Sanitary instructors attached to each subdivision are responsible for the quality. The rations contain adequate fats and vegetables. When fresh vegetables are not available vitamin preparations are added. These are sometimes made on the spot by specially treating sweet briar or pine needles. British and American lard, egg powder and tinned meat are among the rations. The Red x rmy is fully supplied, despite the loss of the Ukraine, Don and Kuban grain. The German plunderers have had some luxurious feasts, but officers and non-commissioned officers mostly benefit. The plundering is so thorough that Germans following up do not find anything.

LULL BROKEN

(Recd. 11.30 p.m.) Rugby, Oct. 13. Reports from Moscow indicate that the lull in the fighting in the Stalingrad area which had been noted during the previous 48 hours was broken yesterday by renewed attacks from German infantry. Only on one sector, however, was any German progress reported. An enemy infantry regiment, supported by 50 tanks, at-

tacked the Russian positions three times. All attacks were repelled and the enemy succeeded in pushing slightly forward only at one point. Twenty tanks were destroyed and two infantry battalions were decimated. On other sectors of the Stalingrad front attacks by small enemy groups were repulsed. The Russians have pushed the Germans back at some points in the Mosdok area.—B.O.W.

SPIRIT OF STALINGRAD

CITY MAY BE RAZED, BUT NOT TAKEN RUSSIAN INITIATIVE IN CAUCASUS (Recd. 6.5 p.m.) London, Oct. 12. The comparative, lull in ground operations at Stalingrad—which is not expected to last—has coincided with the upsurge of bitter fighting in the Mosdok and Novorossisk areas, where the Russians are achieving some successes. Air and artillery activity are undiminished at Stalingrad, and the lull probably indicates preparation for a heavier land battle for the city. Pravda says: “Stalingrad may be razed to the ground but it will not he taken. German divisions flung against the city are still melting away like sugar in boiling u’ater.” Russian Marines who occupy a dominating hill half a mile from the city’s outskirts are again mentioned to-’day for the first time since last month. They have been holding out for more than a month against daily German tank assaults and punishing aerial bombardments.

The Russians are claiming that their successes in the Caucasus are again affecting the German timetable, and Soviet observers are linking the ground lull at Stalingrad with the necessity for a German diversion of fresh divisions to the Caucasus, instead of to Stalingrad. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that at least one enemy division which was intended for Stalingrad had been switched to Mosdok, where it is already in action. One Rumanian division from the Kerch Peninsula was on the way to Mosdok when Russian activity in the Novorossisk area necessitated its transfer to that sector, where two Rumanian cavalry divisions had been badly cut up. The Russians in the Caucasus have generally wrestled the initiative from the Germans. They are holding up all the German thrusts against the approaches to the Grozny oilfields. The Russians are not only sallying out against the German columns, but are improving the defences in case the reinforced enemy manages to break through in any sector.

The Russians on the other fronts continue to decimate the German ranks.

Persistent fighting continues at Sinyavino, south-east of Leningrad, where the Russians are concentrating their grip on recently-won positions.

The Russians on numerous sectors on the Kalinin front, north-west of Moscow, are fighting locally important engagements. The Germans at one place drove back the Russians, but lost their gains before night, losing 600 in killed. Moscow radio declared that the Russians cap’.ured an important height in a Karelian forest on the Finnish front and killed 1500 of the enemy.

A German communique states that Germans annihilated a Russian* unit which was encircled on the road to Tuapse, and also smashed the bulk ot a Russian Guards division and part of a rifle division after hard mountain fighting. According to Vchiy radio, the Germans are continuing their drive to Tuapse, and have mopped up the resistance in most areas. Reconnaissance units are already in action on the road leading to the Black Sea. Some London commentators say that the Russian military situation is more hopeful now than at any time since the Germans began their summer offensive.

Morley Richards, the Daily Express military writer, declares: “There is indisputable evidence that the Genman army around Stalingrad is reaching exhaustion. Reduced in numbers, the Germans have been fought, to a standstill. Von Hoth may try again to capture the city, but the Red Army is supremely confident.” The Dailv Telegraph says: “The lull in the German infantry attacks

against Stalingrad is the best news we have had for some time. Tne Germans are feeling deeply their losses in front-line troops.” The News-Chronicle says: ‘There is no tendency to under-rate the enemy’s striking power, but at last it really looks as if the large German thrust has been so blunted that it may n°ver be able to deliver a fatal blow. Captain Liddell Hart, writing in the Daily Mail, says: “Their most recent setback rnav cost the Germans the chance of conquering the Caucasus and establishing themselves on the Caspian Sea.” He suggests that the smallness of the numbers of .tanks which the Germans are using in the Caucasus shows that th- enemy is increasingly handicapped by wastage of tanks and trained crews, or that the German command has fallen back on the old habit of employing tanks in driblets instead of in massed drives. Moscow radio says that the people’s Commissariat for the Tank Industry announced that more tanks were produced in the first ten days of October than in any corresponding period of the past few months. The fighting quality of the latest model super-heavy Voroshilov tank has been consider ably increased as a result ot tlfe adoption of a number of suggestions from tank men of the Red Army.