Battle of Stalingrad

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 22, 1942)

Enemy near exhaustion, Reds report

Stalingrad attacks grow weaker; Russians gain in Caucasus
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR –
Blizzardly winds whipped the first snow of winter across the desolate steppes northwest of Stalingrad today, and battlefront dispatches said the cold, wet Nazi hordes were nearing exhaustion.

Stalingrad’s roads had been turned into bogs by days of continuous rain. The snow melted as it fell on the steppes and they were now sheets of mud. The bitter wind whipped down between the Don and Volga, numbing the Germans whose attacks against an industrial section in northwest Stalingrad were becoming weaker and weaker.

Normally the blizzards that roar over the steppes, which are among the coldest areas in Russia, do not begin until late November.

Summing up the situation in Stalingrad, the army newspaper Red Star said the Germans’ exhaustion was becoming more acute hourly and they now had the strength to attack only on narrow sectors, one sector at a time.

Relief army gains

Marshal Semyon Timoshenko’s forces, in a counteroffensive above Stalingrad, stormed into enemy trenches and killed 200 Germans with bayonets and rifle butts.

Another resounding Russian success was reported from the Western Caucasus. There, after 10 days of hard fighting, the Russians had stopped 45,000 Germans trying to break through on a mountain road, and killed at least 4,000 of them.

Every attack the Germans delivered inside Stalingrad was beaten off with heavy losses. The Russians, seizing the initiative yesterday, had swept the Germans from several houses near a vital factory fortress in the northwest part of Stalingrad.

No gains for 72 hours

More than 72 hours have passed without the Germans making a gain. This was the 59th day of the siege of Stalingrad, which the Germans believed they would take six weeks ago, and which Adolf Hitler had promised his people would be taken.

The Soviet noon communiqué said:

In the Stalingrad area, a Soviet unit repulsed an infantry and tank attack and wiped out a company (200 men).

On another sector, mortarmen annihilated about 100 and burned five tanks. A platoon of the enemy’s scouts was killed in minefields.

South of Stalingrad, frontline dispatches said, the Russians had driven back the Germans two miles in this area.

Fewer tanks used

The Red Star reported that the force of German tank attacks in the Mozdok area had greatly lessened because of severe losses, and the enemy was now using only light and medium tanks.

The Russians were reported to have smashed an attack by 45 German tanks and 3,000 infantrymen in the Mozdok area, and inflicted heavy losses on them. Soviet artillery picked off scores of autos carrying Hitler’s warriors to the front.

The noon communiqué said 300 more Germans had been killed in the Mozdok area, from which Hitler has been trying for more than two months to drive 40 or 50 miles to the Grozny oil fields.

Snow in Caucasus

Deep snow covered the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains above Novorossiysk, the former Soviet Black Sea naval base, where Russian forces were reported to have wrested two important hills from the Germans.

The Russians mopped up detachments of Tommy-gunners the Germans had sent behind their lines. From Novorossiysk, the Germans were trying to drive down the coastal road and seize the last remaining Russian Black Sea ports. They could not use tanks in the mountains and intensified their air attacks, but frontline reports said they had not interfered with Russian supplies and reinforcements.

The Soviet High Command reported artillery duels at Voronezh, 350 miles northwest of Stalingrad, and on the northwestern front. It also said that Soviet warships in the Black Sea had sunk three enemy auxiliary vessels and one transport totaling 13,000 tons, making a total of 29,000 tons of shipping the Russians have reported sinking in 24 hours, in addition to a Romanian destroyer.

The midnight communiqué announced that Soviet warships in the Finnish Gulf had sunk an enemy transport of 16,000 tons, and that the Black Sea Fleet had sent a Romanian destroyer to the bottom.

[Chewbacca]

@NormanStewart

y friend

Excellent work, . Color brings it to life.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (October 23, 1942)

Erfolgreiche Einzelangriffe in Stalingrad –
1200 Gefangene im Westkaukasus eingebracht

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 22. Oktober –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Westteil des Kaukasus durchbrachen deutsche Gebirgstruppen trotz wolkenbruchartiger Regenfälle feindliche Feldstellungen‚ nahmen in harten Häuserkämpfen zwei wichtige Ortschaften und vernichteten dabei eln Schützenregiment der Sowjets. Über 1200 Gefangene wurden eingebracht, 7 Geschütze, 127 Maschinengewehre und zahlreiches sonstiges Kriegsgerät erbeutet. Südlich des Terek örtliche Kämpfe.

Im Kampf um Stalingrad wurden in hartnäckigen Einzelangriffen zäh verteidigte Erdbunker und Barrikadenstellungen genommen. Das Schwergewicht der deutschen Luftangriffe lag auf den feindlichen Stützpunkten im Nordteil der Stadt. Fortgesetzte Entlastungsangriffe gegen die Front nördlich der Stadt wurden mit Unterstützung deutscher und rumänischer Luftstreitkräfte restlos zerschlagen. Die Zerstörung der rückwärtigen Verbindungen der Sowjets ostwärts der Wolga wurde durch Kampfflugzeuge fortgesetzt.

An der übrigen Ostfront fanden außer eigener Stoßtrupptätigkeit und der Abwehr vereinzelter feindlicher Vorstöße keine wesentlichen Kampfhandlungen statt. Südlich Murmansk rief ein überraschender Angriff der Luftwaffe gegen einen sowjetischen Flugstützpunkt Zerstörungen und Brände hervor.

In der gestern gemeldeten Luftschlacht vom 20. Oktober an der ägyptischen Front schossen italienische Jäger 44 und deutsche Jäger 11, Flakartillerie außerdem 6 feindliche Flugzeuge ab. Am 21. Oktober wurden durch Jäger und Flakartillerie zwölf weitere feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen. Zwölf Flugzeuge der verbündeten Luftstreitkräfte gingen verloren.

Angriffe der deutschen und italienischen Luftwaffe richteten sich auch gestern und in der vergangenen Nacht gegen Flugstützpunkte und sonstige Anlagen der Inselfestung Malta.

Durch den Angriff eines gemischten feindlichen Fliegerverbandes auf westfranzösisches Gebiet hatte die französische Bevölkerung wiederum Verluste, während die Sachschäden gering waren. Jagdflieger schossen drei viermotorige Bomber ab. Außerdem verlor der Feind bei Tage westlich Brest und über dem Südteil des besetzten französischen Gebietes je ein Flugzeug.

Leichte deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen gestern kriegswichtige Anlagen in Südwestengland mit Bomben schweren Kalibers sowie Ansammlungen britischer Landungsboote mit guter Wirkung an. In der vergangenen Nacht bombardierten Kampfflugzeuge militärische Ziele in Ostengland.

[NormanStewart]

Brooklyn Eagle (October 23, 1942)

Red relief army seizes another key hill in drive

Rolls toward Stalingrad as garrison forces Germans on defensive

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
The Red Army stormed and captured another important hill on the snowy steppes above Stalingrad today, and fierce Russian counterattacks at points within the city forced the Germans on the defensive.

German resistance above Stalingrad was fierce. But Marshal Timoshenko’s drive into the German left flank picked up momentum and crushed all resistance as it rolled toward the gallant garrison of Stalingrad, fighting in the 60th day of one of the greatest battles of history.

Frontline dispatches said unprecedented losses, cold, heavy rains, mud and no gains were forcing a slackening of German attacks against a northwestern section of Stalingrad, and that the Russians were gaining the local initiative.

Nazis admit being checked

The German High Command said that:

From the Don to the Arctic, torrential rains and mud have temporarily halted the offensive. There are defensive battles along most of the Eastern Front.

Later, Berlin admitted Russian troops in Stalingrad and other forces to the northwest between the Volga and Don Rivers launched a number of attacks.

The Soviet communiqué, however, reported continued fierce fighting with German infantry and tanks around a factory fortress in northwestern Stalingrad. Enemy infantry split off from the tanks and two penetrated the factory but were disabled by Soviet guns.

Suffering heavy losses, the Germans fell back to positions from which they have not advanced in three days.

On some streets, the Russians counterattacked and the Germans, compelled to take the defensive, feverishly began fortifying half-ruined buildings, the foundations of houses and dugouts. The Germans tried to make sorties and captured individual houses, but dispatches said the Russians were gaining more than the Germans.

The army organ Red Star estimated that the Germans had lost upwards of 70% of their effectives and 60% of their materials, but had replaced them.

Foe halted in Caucasus

German drives in the Caucasus were beaten practically to a standstill.

[Chewbacca]

@NormanStewart

From the Don to the Arctic, torrential rains and mud have temporarily halted the offensive. There are defensive battles along most of the Eastern Front.

Again the Germans are blaming the weatherman. If only the long Summerdays had gone on forever instead of these pesky unexpected seasonal changes :-).

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (October 24, 1942)

Entlastungsangriffe zwischen Don und Wolga abgewiesen –
Widerstandsnester bei Tuapse genommen

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 23. Oktober –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Raum nordostwärts Tuapse warfen Gebirgs- und Jägerdivisionen den Feind aus tiefgestaffelten Widerstandsnestern. Sie wurden hiebei trotz ungünstiger Wetterlage laufend von Luftwaffenverbänden unterstützt. Vor der Kaukasusküste wurde ein sowjetisches Handelsschiff durch Bomben schwer getroffen und von der Besatzung auf Strand gesetzt.

In Stalingrad wurde ein feindlicher Gegenangriff abgewiesen. Zwischen Wolga und Don führten die Sowjets gestern zusammenhanglose Entlastungsangriffe, die blutig abgewiesen wurden. An der Donfront vernichteten ungarische Truppen bei einem örtlichen Unternehmen eine feindliche Kräftegruppe.

Im mittleren und nördlichen Frontabschnitt beiderseitige Stoßtrupptätigkeit. Die Luftwaffe setzte die Bekämpfung der Bahnbewegungen des Feindes fort.

An der ägyptischen Front belegten leichte deutsche Kampfflugzeuge britische Stellungen sowie Panzer- und Kraftfahrzeugansammlungen mit Bomben schweren Kalibers. Begleitende deutsche Jäger brachten in heftigen Luftkämpfen zehn feindliche Flugzeuge bei drei eigenen Verlusten zum Absturz. Weitere drei wurden bei einem Angriffsversuch aut einen eigenen Feldflugplatz durch Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe abgeschossen.

Im Roten Meer versenkten deutsche Kampfflugzeuge in der Nacht zum 22. Oktober ein Handelsschiff von 5000 BRT. Flugplätze und Hafenanlagen der Insel Malta wurden erneut bombardiert.

Nordwestdeutschland wurde am Nachmittag des 22. Oktober von einigen feindlichen Flugzeugen im Schutze tiefliegender Wolken überflogen. Vereinzelte Bombenabwürfe richteten unwesentliche Gebäude- und Flurschäden an. Die Verluste der Bevölkerung waren gering. Leichte deutsche Kampfflugzeuge bekämpften am Tage Ziele an der Südost- und Südwestküste Englands.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1942)

Soviet blows stagger Nazis on 2 sectors

Relief army gains north of Stalingrad; attacks smashed in city
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR –
Marshal Semyon Timoshenko’s relief army above Stalingrad smashed into a German fortified zone today, while the defenders of Stalingrad itself hurled back desperate new attacks and ran Nazi losses up to at least 1,400 men and 15 tanks in 24 hours.

Timoshenko’s drive steadily gained momentum, and it seemed that he soon might realize his plan of slicing through the German left flank and trapping the Nazis in Stalingrad between his army and the defenders, fighting with their backs to the Volga within the city.

1,000 Nazis killed

Driving into the German fortified zone at three points, his men killed 1,000 Germans, and on a neighboring sector, killed 400 Romanians attempting to counterattack and shot down eight planes.

Reports reaching London said Timoshenko’s onslaught against the German flank was stronger than ever and was nearing German main defensive positions northwest of Stalingrad.

The Germans threw 6,000 men and many heavy tanks yesterday into continuous attacks against a factory fortress in northwestern Stalingrad, where they hoped to reach the Volga. Their efforts availed them nothing but heavy losses.

It was the 11th day of a supreme German effort to crash through the northwestern part of Stalingrad.

Hundreds of planes used

Confronted by unyielding resistance, fearful losses, mud, rain, snow and cold, the Germans sharply diminished their attacks for several days. Evidently, they used the time to regroup, before resuming their main drive yesterday.

Several hundred planes blasted Russian positions. The army organ Red Star said 1,500 bombs were dropped yesterday.

Set back in Caucasus

The Russians, however, suffered another setback southeast of Novorossiysk, former Soviet Black Sea base, from which the Germans were trying to drive down the coast. The noon communiqué acknowledged that numerically superior enemy forces had driven across a water barrier, but said Soviet troops have counterattacked and inflicted heavy losses.

On the other Caucasian front – the Mozdok area to the east, where the Germans had vainly tried to drive to the Grozny oil fields – cold weather and flooded streams appeared to have forced a lull.

The noon communiqué also reported that Soviet warships had sunk a 10,000-ton enemy transport in the Baltic.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (October 26, 1942)

Schneidiger Schnellbootvorstoß gegen Tuapse –
„Kraßnyi Oktjabr“ zum Großteil genommen

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 24. Oktober –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Westkaukasus gewinnt der Angriff deutscher und rumänischer Truppen in schwierigen Waldkämpfen immer weiter Raum. Nordostwärts Tuapse wurde ein beherrschender Berg genommen und gegen feindliche Angriffe gehalten. Zwei sowjetische Handelsschiffe wurden vor der Kaukasusküste durch Bombenwurf schwer beschädigt. Küstenartillerie des Heeres vernichtete an der Südküste der Krim ein Schnellboot des Feindes. Deutsche Schnellboote stießen gegen den Hafen von Tuapse vor, erzielten in der Nacht zum 23. Oktober zwei Torpedotreffer auf einem mit Zerstörersicherung einlaufenden feindlichen Kriegsschiff und beschädigten Hafenanlagen. Nach einem Gefecht mit feindlichen Schnellbooten kehrten die eigenen Boote unbeschädigt in ihren Stützpunkt zurück.

In Stalingrad traten Infanterie- und Panzerverbände erneut zum Angriff an, warfen den Feind in hartem Häuserkampf aus verschiedenen Straßerizügen zurück, nahmen den größten Teil des Werkes „Kraßnvj Oktjabr“ und stießen bis zur Wolga durch. Die feindlichen Stellungen lagen unter dem Bombenhagel der laufend eingesetzten Kampf- und Sturzkampfflugzeuge, die außerdem bei Tag und Nacht feindliche Artilleriestellungen auf den Wolgainseln und ostwärts des Stromes bekämpften. Im Norden der Stadt scheiterten schwächere feindliche Entlastungsangriffe.

SüdwestIich Kaluga brach ein örtlicher Angriff der Bolschewisten im zusammengefaßten Abwehrfeuer unter blutigen Verlusten zusammen. An der übrigen Ostfront erfolgreiche eigene Stoßtruppunternehmungen. Schwere Luftangriffe wurden im mittleren Frontabschnitt gegen feindliche Bereitstellungen, Transportbewegungen und Truppenausladungen der Sowjets geführt.

An der ägyptischen Front weiterhin lebhafte Lufttätigkeit. Der Feind verlor zehn Flugzeuge.

Unter Ausnutzung der Wetterlage wiederholte die britische Luftwaffe gestern mit einzelnen Flugzeugen ihre Störungsangriffe auf nordwestdeutsches Gebiet. Die Bevölkerung hatte Verluste. Der Sachschaden war gering. Bei Anflügen gegen die Küsten der besetzten Gebiete verlor der Feind am Tage und in der vergangenen Nacht vier Flugzeuge. Die deutsche Luftwaffe bekämpfte bei Tage militärische Ziele und kriegswichtige Anlagen in Südengland.

---

dnb. Berlin‚ 24. Oktober –
Der Kampf um Stalingrad brachte am 23. Oktober zwei wichtige Auswirkungen, nämlich das Eindringen unser Truppen in das Hüttenwerk „Kraßnij Oktjabr“ und das Weitere Abflauen der bolschewistischen Entlastungsangriffe zwischen Don und Wolga. In dem vollkommen umgepflügten Industriegelände ersetzten die Bolschewisten Nacht für Nacht die Verluste des Tages ohne Rücksicht auf die Ausfälle, die das Heranführen der Reserven kostete. Sie gruben sich fieberhaft in das Trichterfeld ein und brachten auf dem Ostufer der Wolga zahlreiche neue Batterien in Stellung. Im Gelände des Hüttenwerkes traf daher der deutsche Angriff auf außerordentlich starke Gegenwehr des Feindes, die durch Panzer, Infanteriegeschütze und Flammenwerfer zerschlagen werden mußte.

Jedes der Nebenwerke, die rings um die zertrümmerten Hallen des Hauptwerkes liegen, war vom Feind mit Drahthindernissen, Panzerfallen‚ Minensperren, Panzerabwehrkanonen und einer Unmasse schwerer Waffen zu Festungen ausgebaut. Dennoch wurden die ausgedehnten Kesselhäuser und Kraftzentralen von unseren Truppen, denen die Artillerie die Breschen schoß, genommen.

Daß dieser Einbruch in das dritte der großen Bollwerke im Nordteil der Stadt gelang, ist zum großen Teil das Verdienst unserer Artillerie und Luftwaffe, die das Feuer der feindlichen Geschütze niederhielten. Diese Batterien wurden von den Bolschewisten auf der dem Hüttenwerk gegenüberliegenden Wolgainsel erst vorgestern in mühseliger‚ durch Feuerschläge der Flak dauernd gestörter Arbeit in Stellung gebracht.

Die Vernichtung der feindlichen Artillerie wirkte sich auch an der Nordstellung zwischen Wolga und Don aus. Mit den Resten der Batterien konnten die Bolschewisten ihre Entlastungsangriffe nicht mehr ausreichend unterstützen. Die Vorstöße schwächerer Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte brachen daher nach Abschuß einiger Panzerkampfwagen in sich selbst zusammen oder kamen unter den Tiefangriffen der Schlachtflugzeuge überhaupt nicht zur Entwicklung. Diese offensichtliche Schwäche der Bolschewisten ist eine Folge der schweren Verluste‚ die der Feind in den letzten Kampftagen erlitt‚ ohne daß ihm durch die fortwährenden Angriffe der Luftwaffe die Möglichkeit blieb, diese Ausfälle durch geregelten Nachschub zu ersetzen.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 25, 1942)

German lines dented north of Stalingrad

Timoshenko’s relief army gains as fight rages inside city
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR – (Oct. 24)
Marshal Semyon Timoshenko’s relief column was reported tonight to have driven three sharp wedges into the German lines northwest of Stalingrad, between the Volga and the Don, but enemy pressure on a northern factory district inside the city was reported increasing.

The German High Command reported that Nazi troops had driven the Russians from most portions of the big “Red October” foundry. Other Berlin dispatches said the entire works was now held by German troops which advanced to the Volga on a two-mile front. A Vichy radio report claimed the Germans now hold 22 of the 26 districts of Stalingrad but Radio Berlin said the Soviets had brought up fresh divisions to Stalingrad from Iran.

The Russian Baltic Fleet reported its first major success in many weeks – the sinking of a 10,000-ton German transport.

Reds keep initiative

Dispatches from the front said that Timoshenko’s forces were hacking away at the Germans northwest of Stalingrad and continued to hold the initiative in driving southward toward the besieged city.

In one Russian attack, new positions were taken and about 1,000 Germans were killed.

To the south, Red Star, Red Army newspaper, reported that six German divisions operating along the Terek River front had suffered heavy casualties in unsuccessful breakthrough efforts. The Nazi losses in the two most badly-handled divisions were said to approximate 15,000 men.

Divisions shattered

The 370th and 111th German infantry divisions, Red Star said, have lost more than half their effectives.

Three German armored divisions – the 3rd, 13th and 23rd – were said to have suffered considerable losses, beginning about Oct. 1, at which time the Germans brought up the newly reformed Viking Division.

The Viking Division reportedly suffered heavy losses in the past 20 days, without making any forward gains.

1,500 bombs dropped

Inside Stalingrad, there was little change in the situation but German presses was still heavy.

The Germans attacked with two infantry regiments and many tanks, the reports to Red Star said, directing their drive against a single factory. The Luftwaffe supported the operation, dropping more than 1,500 bombs, it was said.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (October 26, 1942)

Erfolgreiches Unternehmen auf dem Ladogasee –
Spartakowka bis auf einzelne Häuser erobert

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 25. Oktober –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Westkaukasus erstürmten deutsche und rumänische Truppen‚ wirksam von der Luftwaffe unterstützt, weitere Höhenrücken. Gegenangriffe des Feindes wurden unter blutigen Verlusten abgewiesen. Im Kampf um Stalingrad wurden in hartnäckigen Einzelkämpfen bis auf eine Halle alle restlichen Fabrikanlagen des Werkes „Kraßnyj Oktjabr“‚ ausgebaute Stellungen und Häuserblocks sowie der nördliche Vorort Spartakowka bis auf einzelne Häuser genommen. Das am Vortag gewonnene Stadt- und Werkgelände ist von Resten des Feindes gesäubert. Entlastungsangriffe brachen zusammen. Die schweren Luftangriffe auf die feindlichen Stützpunkte in Stalingrad und die sowjetischen Nachschubverbindungen ostwärts der Wolga gingen mit unverminderter Kraft weiter.

An der Donfront schlugen rumänische Truppen mehrere feindliche Angriffe ab. Rumänische Luftstreitkräfte richteten ihre Angriffe gegen feindliche Stellungen und Bahnbewegungen.

Auf dem Ladogasee führte in der Nacht zum 22. Oktober ein Verband deutscher und italienischer Kriegsfahrzeuge unter Sicherung durch die deutsche und finnische Luftwaffe ein örtliches Unternehmen gegen einen Teil der von den Sowjets besetzten Küste durch. Eine Landungsabteilung zerstörte einen Leuchtturm und brachte Gefangene ein. Auf der Rückfahrt wurden unter ständigen Gefechten gegen feindliche Kanonenboote heftige Luftangriffe abgewehrt und durch Jäger und Flakartillerie 21 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

In Ägypten trat der Feind in breiter Front nach heftiger Artillerievorbereitung mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerverbänden unter Einsatz zahlreicher Luftstreitkräfte zu dem erwarteten Großangriff an. Zur Zeit sind erbitterte Kämpfe im Gange. Der Feind verlor bisher 20 Flugzeuge und zahlreiche Panzer.

Auf Malta erzielten leichte deutsche Kampfflugzeuge wiederum zahlreiche Bombentreffer. in den Flugplatzanlagen von Lucca und Venezia. Bei Einflügen in die besetzten Westgebiete sowie beim An- und Abflug gegen Oberitalien verlor die britische Luftwaffe durch die deutsche Abwehr elf Flugzeuge, hievon mehr als die Hälfte viermotorige Bomber.

In der Nacht zum 25. Oktober führte die deutsche Luftwaffe Bombenangriffe gegen kriegswichtige Anlagen einiger Städte in Ostengland. Alle Flugzeuge kehrten zu ihren Einsatzhäfen zurück.

Wie durch Sondermeldung bekanntgegeben, wurden von deutschen Unterseebooten‚ obwohl auch weiterhin schwere Herbststürme die Operationen beeinträchtigten, in harten Kämpfen aus stark gesicherten Geleitzügen und in zäher Einzeljagd im Nordatlantik‚ im Eismeer, vor der kanadischen Küste, bei Trinidad, vor der Kongomündung und vor Kapstadt 16 Schiffe mit 104.000 BRT. sowie ein Zerstörer versenkt. Drei weitere Schiffe und ein weiterer Zerstörer wurden durch Torpedotreffer beschädigt.

[NormanStewart]

Die harten Kämpfe in Stalingrad

dnb. Berlin, 25. Oktober –
In Stalingrad brachen die deutschen Truppen am Samstag in weitere schwer befestigte Einzelwerke des Hüttenwerkes „Krassnyj Oktjabr“ ein. Dieses auf dem Höhenrücken vor der Wolga liegende Befestigungswerk bot seinen Verteidigern immer neue Möglichkeiten zum Widerstand. Die von Trümmern übersäten und von Trichtern aufgerissenen breiten Straßen zwischen den weitläufigen Hallen und den Nebenwerken haben für den Kampf die Bedeutung natürlicher Schluchten. Sie zerschneiden zusammen mit den tiefen Gräben, die zur Wolga führen, das Kampffeld in zahlreiche Abschnitte, die einzeln erstürmt werden mußten. Sie boten aber auch dem Feind die Möglichkeit‚ seine des Nachts in kleinen Trupps über die Wolga kommenden Reserven an die Verteidigungsstellungen heranzubringen.

Der wichtigste Erfolg unserer Truppen am Samstag war jedoch die Wegnahme des Vorortes Spartakowka. Als am 16. Oktober unsere Truppen das Traktorenwerk gestürmt hatten, drangen sie am nächsten Tage in kraftvollem Stoß nach Norden vor und stellten die Verbindung mit der nördlichen Riegelstellung her. Nordwestlich dieses Durchbruchsstreifens wurden damals feindliche Kräfte abgeschnitten und Vernichtet, ostwärts dagegen blieb zwischen unseren neuen Stellungen und der Wolga die Vorstadt Spartakowka liegen. Dieser Stadtteil wurde nunmehr, während die Bomben noch krachten und Wolken von Qualm und Staub die Sicht nahmen, von unseren Infanterie-, Pionier- und Panzerverbänden bis auf vereinzelte Widerstandsnester gestürmt.

Die schweren Kämpfe in Stalingrad haben den Feind erheblich geschwächt. Seine ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste in den Kampf getriebenen Massen haben sich noch nicht wieder erholen können, so daß auch am Samstag die schwachen Entlastungsangriffe von etwa fünf sowjetischen Bataillonen gegen die Front zwischen Wolga und Don im Zusammenwirken mit deutschen und rumänischen Luftwaffenverbänden ergebnislos zusammenbrachen.

[Chewbacca]

@NormanStewart

Spartakowka

Not sure about the etmology but

“SPARTA” + “Kowka”

Well the first has some huge symbolic with regards to Thermopylae in Greece. (the 300)

КОШКА - Translation in English - bab.la

fluffy-cat
cat-o’-nine-tails

I kind of wonder if the Spartakovka name was used in the 460 BC context as it was about stopping and invading rollercoaster as well? Maybe Russian speakers know.

Chewie:
PS Mental picture now of 300 Grumpy Cats armed with cat-o’-nine-tails

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 26, 1942)

Nearer Stalingrad –
Relief troops gain in Russia

Timoshenko’s men kill 7,000 Nazis in two days
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR –
Powerful Soviet forces, striking from a newly captured village in the Don-Volga corridor, blasted the Germans from more trenches and dugouts today and pressed on toward the relief of Stalingrad’s embattled defenders.

The Soviet High Command did not indicate how far the relief forces, commanded by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko were from Stalingrad, but it was believed they were now approaching the man German defense positions in the northwestern suburbs.

Having killed at least 7,000 Germans in two days, Timoshenko’s men captured a village, strongly fortified, and another strongpoint yesterday.

Weather now aids Nazis

Bloody hand-to-hand battles raged in an industrial section of northwestern Stalingrad, and the latest communiqué said the Germans had penetrated the fringe of a factory, but the defenders were wiping these units out.

Sun and a dry wind, following days of rain, mud and snow were aiding the Germans, who threw thousands of fresh reserves into a desperate effort to drive to the Volga River and split the defenders before winter closes in for good within the next few days.

The Germans had failed to accomplish their objective in 63 days of siege and at the cost of hundreds of thousands of their men. Their desperate effort was now as costly as their earlier assaults and the results were meager. Two streets that the Germans captured yesterday in the factory district were their first gain in almost a week.

Axis stalled in Caucasus

Inside Stalingrad, the Russian communiqué said:

Soviet artillery dispersed and partly wiped out a regiment (3,000 men) of infantry, destroyed 14 tanks and silenced 15 mortar batteries. After hand-to-hand fighting, the Germans penetrated the fringe of one factory, but the Soviets are presently wiping them out.

Caucasian battlefronts were comparatively quiet. The latest communiqué reported only artillery, trench mortar, rifle and machine-gun duels in the Mozdok area of the Eastern Caucasus.

German forces in the Mozdok area have been almost completely inactive for the past few days, after the failure of a 10-week campaign to drive a few miles to the Grozny oil fields. German and Italian infantry and armored forces have lost more than 50% of their effectives and are no nearer their objective than they were in August.

Southeast of Novorossiysk, former Black Sea naval base, the German drive toward the port of Tuapse has been stalled for 48 hours.

Expect big Leningrad battle

The Communist Party organ Pravda revealed that Black Sea marines in the past 12 days have captured four inhabited coastal points and two strategic heights and killed or wounded 1,800 Axis soldiers.

The Soviet communiqué reported that 400 Germans had been killed on sectors of the northwestern front, and dispatches from this area said decisive battles around Leningrad were expected soon.

The first snow of winter has already fallen at Leningrad and there is thin ice on Lake Ladoga. Autumn operations have been difficult on this front because of swampy terrain, but as soon as the ground freezes, fighting will flare again.

400 yards from Volga

Meanwhile, at some points in Stalingrad, frontlines were only 400 yards from the Volga, and the Russians rushed reinforcements from the east bank.

The Soviet communiqué indicated that the Russians in the Stalingrad area were attacking and advancing over a wide front. On Friday and Saturday, the Russians burned or damaged 57 enemy tanks and destroyed 200 cannon and70 machine guns. They captured 150 tanks which the Germans had buried and were using as fixed artillery in a fortified line.

The beginning of Timoshenko’s attack coincided almost to the hour with the resumption of the full-scale German drive against the northwestern part of Stalingrad. Friday and Saturday, front dispatches said, the Germans lost at least 2,000 men in northwestern Stalingrad.

Trees ‘hurl’ grenades

When Timoshenko’s men occupied one stronghold, more than 3,000 Axis officers and men were found dead in the trenches and dugouts.

The Soviet Army organ, Red Star, reported that the Germans in the Mozdok area od the Caucasus had resorted to the primitive drive of pulling down saplings, trying grenades to the tops of them and releasing the saplings to fling the grenades toward Soviet lines.

Near Voronezh, 350 miles northwest of Stalingrad, two platoons of German troops tried to cross a river. Soviet machine-gunners killed or drowned most of them.

The communiqué said 114 German planes were destroyed in Russia between Oct. 18 and 25. The Russians lost 51.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 27, 1942)

8,000 more Axis troops die –
Two Soviet relief armies drive near Stalingrad

By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR –
The Russians, embarked on another big counteroffensive, have killed 7,000 Germans and Romanians, destroyed 160 tanks and driven them beyond a ridge of hills that surrounds the southern approaches to Stalingrad, front dispatches revealed today.

Powerful Red Army forces, driving through the German left flank northwest of Stalingrad in the Don-Volga corridor, have captured a second village and sent the Germans into fast retreat toward new positions.

Soviet dispatches yesterday said this force north of Stalingrad had killed 7,000 Germans. With today’s report from south of the city, as total of 14,000 Axis troops have been killed in two days in the two relief drives, according to Moscow.

In Stalingrad itself, the defenders smashed every German attack, killed 1,000 Stormtroopers and blew up six tanks.

The latest Soviet communiqué referred to Soviet assaults south of Stalingrad as “counterattacks.”

But dispatches revealed that the battle had raged six days. A Russian division repulsed repeated attacks, killed 4,000 Germans and Romanians and burned or blew up 100 of their tanks.

Then the Russians attacked, and killed 3,000 more of the enemy moving into the front beyond the hills surrounding Stalingrad’s southern approaches. The Russians drove behind the hills and forced the Germans to retreat 150 years. They had spent six weeks fortifying the grove.

Marshal Semyon Timoshenko’s men, now deep in the German left flank northwest of Stalingrad, surrounded a village, closed in and took it street by street, killing 600 Germans. It was the second village that the Russians had captured since Sunday.

On another sector northwest of Stalingrad, Soviet forces killed 300 Germans and destroyed six tanks.

Dispatches said the battle inside Stalingrad raged from dawn to dusk with “unusual ferocity,” the Germans never ceasing their costly attempts to drive through a factory settlement in a northern district to the Volga.

The Soviet High Command quoted prisoners as saying that the entire German 350th Infantry Division (15,000 men) had been killed, wounded or captured, with the exception of 20 or 30 men, in these attacks.

The Germans continually shelled and dive-bombed the factory district. They made at least 1,400 bombing sorties yesterday, but no lasting gains and the Russians were battling fiercely to recover a few hundred yards they had lost earlier.

The army organ Red Star, commenting on a recent speech by Gen. Ditmar, spokesman for the German High Command, said the Nazis had been forced to admit the failure of their summer campaign.

Reds hold near naval base

Red Star said:

Hitler’s army is bleeding profusely, his plan to destroy the Red Army is bankrupt and his dreams of decisive successes this year have been dissipated like smoke.

Assessing the Soviet success south of Stalingrad, the government organ Izvestia, said both German flanks were now on the defensive, and the Germans were simply not able to fight on all sectors of the front, because of their heavy losses.

The Russians were also holding in the mountains northeast of Tuapse, a secondary naval base on the Black Sea, 75 miles below Novorossiysk. East of Novorossiysk, Soviet troops improved their positions and partly annihilated a squadron of cavalry.

Lull in Caucasus

Fighting had evidently dwindled to nothing in the Mozdok area of the Eastern Caucasus, where the Germans had failed in a 10-week campaign to drive 50 miles to the Grozny oil fields.

Large forces of Germans, supported by heavy tanks, drove into Soviet positions yesterday, after a five-hour battle. The defenders counterattacked on the enemy’s flank with such force that the wedge was withdrawn.

There was sporadic fighting on other fronts yesterday. In the Voronezh area, 350 miles northwest of Stalingrad, a Soviet detachment broke into enemy trenches and beat off all German attempts to oust them.

Four hundred Germans were killed on the Leningrad Front in Soviet attacks.

The Air Arm of the Red Fleet has sunk two enemy transports totaling 12,000 tons in the Bay of Finland.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (October 28, 1942)

In Stalingrad weiter heftige Straßenkämpfe –
Bedeutende Angriffs erfolge im Terekabschnitt

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 27. Oktober –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Raum von Noworossijsk stürmten deutsche Infanterieverbände nach erbitterten Kämpfen eine Panzergrabenstellung der Sowjets. In den Gebirgskämpfen nordostwärts Tuapse wurde eine feindliche Höhenstellung und dabei ein umschlossenes sowjetisches Regiment zum größten Teil vernichtet. Im Terekabschnitt haben deutsche und rumänische Truppen, unterstützt durch starke Verbände der Luftwaffe, angegriffen und schon in den ersten beiden Tagen räumlich und taktisch bedeutende Erfolge erzielt.

In Stalingrad gehen die hartnäckigen Straßen- und Häuserkämpfe erfolgreich weiter. Südlich der Stadt erneuerte der Feind seine vergeblichen Entlastungsangriffe, bei denen er hohe blutige Verluste erlitt. Transportbewegungen der Sowjets auf Bahnen, Straßen und Wasserwegen wurden auch bei Nacht wirksam bombardiert. Mehrere Transportzüge wurden zerstört und im Westteil des Kaspischen Meeres ein Tanker und acht Handelsschiffe in Brand geworfen, beziehungsweise schwer beschädigt. Am 26. Oktober verlor die Sowjetluftwaffe in heftigen Luftkämpfen und durch Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe 60 Flugzeuge; vier eigene Flugzeuge werden vermißt.

Die Schlacht in Ägypten nimmt mit unverminderter Heftigkeit ihren Fortgang. Unter Einsatz neuer starker Kräfte versuchte der Feind gestern vergeblich die Stellung der deutsch-italienischen Panzerarmee zu durchbrechen. Er verlor wieder 111 Panzerkampfwagen und 38 Panzerspähwagen. Deutsch-italienische Luftstreitkräfte griffen in immer stärker sich wiederholenden Einsätzen die feindlichen rückwärtigen Verbindungen an. In Luftkämpfen schossen deutsche und italienische Jäger über Nordafrika und über dem Mittelmeer 14 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

Über Südengland führte die deutsche Luftwaffe am gestrigen Tage ausgedehnte Angriffe gegen Industrie- und Werftanlagen.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 28, 1942)

Timoshenko gains –
Big tank army rushing to aid of Stalingrad

Slight German advance in city costs 1,000 men on 66th day
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR –
Marshal Semyon Timoshenko’s relief army, advancing with 200 tanks along a broad front northwest of Stalingrad, crashed through another strongly-fortified point today and killed 500 more Germans.

Pouring masses of men, armored forces and planes into another drive for victory at any price, the Germans advanced slightly in two streets of northern Stalingrad, but lost 1,000 men and five tanks.

Timoshenko’s army drove the Germans slowly from their trenches and dugouts between the Don and Volga Rivers, front dispatches said. Axis defenses in this area were in considerable depth and firmly held and the Germans had about as many tanks northwest of Stalingrad as Timoshenko.

Romanian attacks fail

Some of the bitterest fighting northwest of Stalingrad centered about a village which the Russians took Saturday, killing 7,000 Germans and Romanians and destroying 307 of their tanks.

The Romanians were now trying to recaptured the village. Four of their counterattacks failed, and the latest communiqué reported 850 more Romanians killed.

The Germans redoubled the violence of their efforts to drive through a workers’ settlement and factory districts in northern Stalingrad to the Volga.

In the past 24 hours, they have left at least 1,900 men dead and the wrecks of 12 tanks on the blood-sodden approaches to this area and the small advance reported in the latest Soviet communiqué was all they had to show for their losses.

Soviet counterblows jarred the Germans on the closely-connected Western Caucasian battlefronts around Tuapse and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast.

Battle in Caucasus

Northeast of Tuapse, a secondary Soviet naval base, Soviet troops struck suddenly in a ravine and killed 400 Germans. East of Novorossiysk, which the Germans occupied weeks ago, Red Fleet Marines drove into a village and killed 50 Germans. Snipers killed 272 more Germans yesterday.

The Soviet Army organ, Red Star, said the major enemy effort in the Caucasus was now to cross the foothills and seize Tuapse. The Germans have not been able in six weeks to reach the highway that runs 75 miles down the coast from Novorossiysk to Tuapse.

Therefore, Red Star said, they had executed a flanking maneuver. Heavy artillery fire and bombing had enabled Alpine troops to penetrate Soviet defense in two strategic localities, whence they were trying to drive southwestward, presumably in an attempt to encircle the Russians southeast of Novorossiysk.

At Tuapse, Red Star reported, the Russians had counterattacked the “exhausted” Germans and thrown them back some distance. A battle raged in its second day for a height where the Russians had wiped out 1,000 Germans.

The government organ Izvestia reported that Soviet submarines in the Baltic had sunk two enemy transports totaling 13,000 tons.

Inside Stalingrad, the Germans attacked like madmen, because they knew that their tome was getting painfully short. It was the 66th day of the battle and they had expected to win in the middle of August. In a few weeks, terrible blizzards will envelope their lines on the steppes, and official publications said both German flanks were on the defensive, as a result of Soviet drives south and northwest of Stalingrad.

The United Press listening post in London heard Radio Berlin reveal that German troops in Russia had been ordered to save their ammunition and “make every shot hit” because of supply difficulties.

Radio Berlin said:

German mechanized forces on the northern and central sectors are bogged down by continuous downpours. Also supplies are encountering increasing difficulties as a consequence of the weather.

The Germans reported improved weather in the Western Caucasus and claimed they were making good progress, despite swift maintain rivers “fanatical” resistance and minefields.

On the northwestern front, between Moscow and Leningrad, 2,000 German troops and 10 tanks attacked Russian positions yesterday. They were thrown back, and another attack was started by 3,000 Germans and 15 tanks, besides airplanes. These attacks were also smashed and 11 tanks and five planes destroyed.

[NormanStewart]

Enemy broadcast –
Truce plea denied by Nazi generals

Dispatches from enemy countries are based on broadcasts over controlled radio stations and frequently contain false information for propaganda purposes.

Berlin, Germany (UP) – (German broadcast recorded in New York)
The German High Command today denied a report it credited to the London radio that Germany had asked through the Red Cross for a four-day truce at Stalingrad in which to remove the wounded and bury the dead, but the negotiations had failed.

The communiqué said:

The German High Command in replying emphasized that this statement was only one of the usual mendacious reports published by the British government with the object of disguising the incessantly progressing collapse of the defense of Stalingrad.

---

The United Press yesterday reported from Stockholm that the Germans had sought such a truce early this month, but that the proposal was abandoned when Germany rejected a Russian stipulation that the German public must be informed of the suspension and the reason for it.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (October 29, 1942)

Der Angriff im Kaukasusgebiet überall erfolgreich –
Erbittertes Ringen bei El Alamein

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 28. Oktober –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Südostwärts Noworossijsk haben deutsche Truppen nach tagelangen schweren Kämpfen einen beherrschenden Höhenzug genommen. Im Kampfgebiet östlich Tuapse wurde eine durch zahlreiche Kampfanlagen verstärkte und hartnäckig verteidigte Bergstellung erstürmt und alle Gegenangriffe des Feindes blutig abgewiesen. Im gleichen Kampfraum bekämpfte die Luftwaffe die Stellungen des Feindes sowie Stadt- und Hafengebiet von Tuapse. Ein Handelsschiff von 6000 BRT. wurde durch Bombentreffer beschädigt. Westlich des Terek schritt der eigene Angriff auch gestern gut vorwärts und führte zur Einschließung feindlicher Kräfte.

In Stalingrad stieß der deutsche Angriff östlich der Brotfabrik bis zur Wolga durch und brachte damit ein größeres vom Feind stark besetztes Häusergebiet zu Fall. Verbände der Luftwaffe griffen mit gutter erkung fn diese Kämpfe efn. Südlich der Stadt wies Infanterie in schweren Kämpfen wiederholt Entlastungsangriffe der Sowjets ab. Auf Bahnstrecken und im Kaspischen Meer erlitt der Feind durch die deutschen Luftangriffe hohe Verluste. 11 Transportzüge wurden vernichtet, 3 Handelsschiffe mit zusammen 3000 BRT. versenkt, 1 Tanker, 1 Handelsschiff und 2 Bewacher in Brand geworfen beziehungsweise beschädigt. An der Donfront warfen rumänische Truppen, von ihren eigenen Kampfflugzeugen gut unterstützt, den Feind in die Donniederung zurück.

Die schweren, aber erfolgreichen Abwehrkämpfe in der El-Alamein-Stellung dauern an. Insbesondere im nördlichen Abschnitt führten die beiderseitigen Angriffe und Gegenangriffe zu erbittertem Ringen der Infanterie- und Panzerverbände, wobei eine besonders stark umkämpfte wichtige Höhe zuletzt in eigener Hand blieb. Der Feind verlor dabei abermals 53 Panzerkampfwagen. In heftigen Luftkämpfen brachten deutsche und italienische Jagdflieger 21 britische Flugzeuge zum Absturz, eines wurde von der Flakartillerie abgeschossen.

Bei Einflügen über der westfranzösischen Küste wurden gestern drei britische Flugzeuge in Luftkämpfen abgeschossen. Am Abend des 27. Oktober flogen einige leichte Bomber unter Ausnutzung des stark diesigen Wetters in norddeutsches Küstengebiet ein und verursachten einige Verluste unter der Bevölkerung. Im übrigen entstanden nur geringe Gebäude- und Sachschäden.

Der Sender London gab in der vergangenen Nacht bekannt, daß die Deutschen durch Vermittlung des Roten Kreuzes den Vorschlag für einen viertägigen Waffenstillstand in Stalingrad gemacht hätten, die Verhandlungen seien jedoch gescheitert. Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht erklärt dazu, daß diese Behauptung eine der üblichen Lügen der britischen Regierung ist‚ mit der sie den unaufhaltsamen Zusammenbruch der Verteidigung von Stalingrad zu verschleiern sucht.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 29, 1942)

Moscow says foe suffers major defeat

4,000 more Axis troops die in Stalingrad; Germans gain in Caucasus
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

Moscow, USSR –
The Soviet press today credited the defenders of Stalingrad with inflicting “the greatest German defeat since the winter defeat at Moscow” and in the Caucasus, Red Army troops drove forward in a blizzard and found Nazi troops frozen to death in their dugouts.

Reports from the Caucasus said the mountains were now many feet deep with snow and that temperatures were “far below zero.”

It was announced, however, that Soviet forces had again fallen back near Nalchik, 50 miles southwest of Mozdok.

The German High Command said Romanian and German Alpine troops captured Nalchik.

Fresh Nazi forces attack

On the Stalingrad Front, Soviet drives northwest and south of the city bent back the German flanks and, inside the battered industrial center, Nazi frontal attacks were beaten off.

The Germans were reported to have brought up a fresh tank division and attacked a northern factory district again with four infantry and two tank divisions – possibly 75,000 men – but they advanced only 100 or 200 yards, it was said, losing about five battalions in the operation – approximately 4,000-5,000 men.

The Rome radio said Axis engineers had pierced the last Soviet positions in Stalingrad in the vicinity of a large factory. The Russians, in an attempt to thwart the attack, reportedly loaded crewless tanks with explosives, started the motors and headed them toward German fortifications. German artillery, it was said, blew up the tanks before they could cause any damage.

Northeast of the Tuapse Naval Base in the Western Caucasus, temperatures were far below zero, dispatches said. The Germans were using ski and sled detachments in frantic efforts to reach the warmer coast of the Black Sea before the blizzard froze them, or made the mountains completely impassable.

Snow fills passes

Snow, often waist deep, already filled passes and deep gorges, the Communist Party organ Pravda said. Avalanches periodically thundered down the mountainsides.

The Council of People’s Commissars, meanwhile, introduced military training into Russian elementary schools, ordered all boys and girls to start training under Red Army officers beginning with their fourth year in school. Training will begin at the age of 8 and will continue to 18, the new decree ordered.

Boys will be trained both in methods of single-handed fighting and in platoon exercises. Girls will be instructed as war nurses and radio and telephone operators.

Meanwhile, at Stalingrad, where the weather was verging on winter, the Russians threw back an earlier attack by 1,000 Nazis and killed more than 100.

But in the Eastern Caucasus, around Nalchik, the Soviet High Command reported the second setback in 24 hours.

Red ski troops attack

In the Caucasus, Soviet ski troops, muffled to heavy furs, were reported counterattacking, and dispatches said they had already thwarted a further penetration toward the Black Sea northeast of Tuapse.

At one point, the Russians were reported to have split German and Romanian forces, captured a strategic height, killed hundreds of enemy troops, and captured much booty and many prisoners.

Pravda reported that Russian caravans of horses and donkeys laden with supplies were streaming through the snow toward mountain positions. But the snow was so deep that the caravans often became exhausted. Then men took the supplies from the beasts and packed them themselves. Pravda said men were often carrying mountain guns 15 miles after horses and mules bogged down.

The Germans had tried for three months to drive from the Terek Valley, east of Mozdok, to the nearby Grozny oil fields and Ordzhonikidze. They failed in the Terek Valley and had now returned toward Nalchik, evidently hoping to find easier going toward the same objectives.

The Germans also reported deep snow in the Mozdok area.

The Soviet communiqué indicated that ferocious German assaults against an industrial area in northern Stalingrad had slackened, if only momentarily, from the weight of losses.

Attacking forces smaller

The size of the attacking force and German losses were smaller than they have been since four days ago, when the Germans threw masses of men, tanks and planes into a great effort to plunge to the Volga River.

Yesterday, for instance, the Germans lost 2,400 men killed and 30 tanks in gaining 200 yards in the industrial district. Their total losses in gaining the 200 yards and probably a block of two streets the day before were 4,400 men killed – probably several times that many wounded – and 42 tanks.

The BBC said Timoshenko’s drive was less than 3 miles from Stalingrad.

The Germans reported Soviet attacks south of Stalingrad yesterday, but claimed, as usual, that they were repulsed.

[NormanStewart]

Major, daughter cited for bravery

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
Maj. Ivan Zolotov and his 21-year-old daughter, who fought side by side in the same regiment, were among the defenders of Stalingrad decorated today for bravery.