The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-24
Entire German Division Is AnnihiIated Northeast 0l
 City Reported GERMANS TRYING TO
 RALLY ARMY REMAINS Wintry Weather Adds to Enemies Now Wagine
 War on Germans
BY HENRY SHAPIRO United Press Staff Correspondent

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 United Press Staff CorrespondentD
 Moscow, November 24. - A great and possibly decisive tank battle ragged in the area west of Stalingrad today as battered German forces, fore seeing entrapment in an iron ring forged by the Red Army, sought to rally for a counter. attack. The Soviet offensive gained momentum. One army pushing southward reached the vil- lage Of Pogodinsky, well inside the bend of the river Don, in drive to achieve a junction with Russian forces hammering their way west. ward from Lalach. A third army, advancing from southern sectors cut the railroad to Rostov and rolled on to the southeast.
 The German attempt at a counter- attack was having little success. One entire German division was re- ported eXterminated in single brief operation when 1t tried to cut off the Soviet wedge northwest of Stalingrad. The Russians beat off the counter-aSsault while other forces struck the enemy Hanks and encircled the division.
 Another German division met a similar fate.
 Colonel General Hermann 10th. Commander Of the Germans in the Stalingrad area, hastened to de- velop counter offensive powerful enough to break the Russian drive before the big trap snapped shut and left him open to annihilation.
 The inspired Russians gave him a foretaste of the peril in four days of fighting, during which &C., 900 Germans were killed while ar- other 1000 fighting inside the city of Stalingrad, were taken prisoner. Booty was in proportion.
 Tn one Stalingrad segment alone the Russians annihilated a com- plete, fully-equipped infantry divi- sion of l2,000 which had arrived at the front recently. Within a few hours the same Soviet units ann;- hilated the bulk Of another division and the survivors abandoned their arms and ammunition in flight.
 Aviation was involved only sec- ondarily. The low, dense morning fogs prevented planes from perform ing their full functions but afforded fine cover for heavy artillery and the advance of shock infantry and tank units.
 The Russian winter was giving the Germans taste of disaster also. The entire Steppe was frozen and blanketed with snow.
 The newspaper Pravda reported that the Soviet thrust south of Stalingrad across the frozen Kal- myk Steppes was developing no less successfully than the western and northern offensives. Large German and Rumanian units, miserably clad. with blankets wrapped around their shoulders and handkerchiefs over their faces to shut out the biting wind, roamed the windswept Steppes and often surrendered with out fight. the newspaper said.
 Those who resisted were encircled quickly and wiped out.
 While the Russians have crushed and battered dozens of German di- visions in the past three months the newspaper Izvestia pointed out dozens of other divisions. number ing hundreds of thousands of Naz troops still were concentrated in tho area. They have occupied fortified villages and strong points and thell extermination will grow increasing ly dificilt once the moment et the Soviet encirclement drive is shifted Izvestia said.
 Front dispatches revealed tho
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