Evening star., 1942-12-09
Nazis Use Mail Planes
In Effort 10 Bolster
Sta|ingrad Siege
Reds Report Appearance
Of Croft at Front, Showing
Transport Shortage
By HENRY CASSIDY,

MOSCOW, Dec. 9.-Germany's
: armies, trying desperately tc
, hold the siege of Stalingrad they
Z laid down 106 days ago, are press
= Ing mail planes and training
ships into service in an attempt
to bolster their threatened forces
with reinforcements, the Soviet
Army newspaper Red Star as
serted today.
The Red Air Force has downed
! as many as 60 Junkers SIS in three
days, Red Star said. These are the
regular German troop and supply
carrying ships which the invader
has been using to bring reserves
from as far as Germany itself, Red
Star claimed
Even the Hamburg 142, a mail
plane, has appeared on the front
for the first time, the Russians
asserted, indicating the enemys
shortage of transport aircraft
Trains and trucks also were be-
Ing used in an effort to pour help
through the narrow corridor left
to the Nazis at Stalingrad.
Southwest of Stalingrad the Ger
mans hit Red Army f1anks With
tanks and motorized infantry, and
i at some points, Red Star conceded,
penetrated to the rear of Russian
units.
3 Russian tanks and motorized in
! fantry, aided by light armor- -pierc-
I ing guns mounted on tanks, gen
> orally succeeded in restoring posi-
5 tions," Red Star said.
, Within Stalingrad itself, Red Star
{ reported, Russian artillery shelled
. the Germans with long-range guns.
, Fighting in the narrow, wreck
,sge-strewn streets of the city con-
. tinued to be confined to small
groups, it was said.
, The mounting activity of German
armor and planes was noted by Red
p, Star on the central front. too. In
the Velikie Luki sector, despite re-
cent snowStorms. Russian flyers shot
down seven Nazi bombers in one
day, dispatches said.
Newly concentrated German re-
serves were reported in violent
counterattacks west of Rzhev.
But the Russians claimed that
they set back the NaZi attempts to
take an important highway on the
central front, occupied four more
populated points in a still-develop-
ing offensive and routed bat
talon in a prolonged struggle for
one village.
CThe German high command
reported large-scale Russians
operations on the central front
had lost much of their striking
power and said the Red Army
had failed. with heavy losses, to
break through German positions
in the East Caucasus and the
Volga-Don region. ,
(The Berlin radio said the
German counterattack in the
Kalinin-Toropets sector north
west of Moscow had gained new
ground and was of an import
ance which the next few DAYS
would discloSe)
Red Star said shock troops stormed
German front-line trenches in one
sector southwest of Stalingrad, kill
ing several hundred of the enemy
in their advance.
Engineers cut barbed-wire barriers
and made a path in the minefelds
during the night; artillery blasted
enemy pillboXes. and the infantry
then rushed the trenches with a
grenade assault, giving the signal for
the general attack. it reported.
The afternoon communique, which
listed more than 1900 of the enemy
killed in the nights fighting, told
how Russian artillery pounded back
an attempt by German mechanical
infantry to flank some of their units
in the sector southwest of Stalin-
grad.
Russian dispatches pictured the
offensive as war of doggedly keep
ing at the attempt of turning back
Germans trying to counterattack
and then pushing on to destroy
their hedgehog outposts. their for
titled points and their garrisons.
1t was war In one sector Of bay
onet killings numbered in the So
Wet communique early today at 700
and in another sector of swift patrol
action with group making its way
behind the Nazi lines. blowing up
rail line, killing 20 Germans and
dashing back to its position.
The communique said that in
salients west of Rzhev the Red
Army unsheathed it's bayonets and
stormed a dominating height, TAX
ing 81 prisoners as we'll as leaving
TOO dead.
In that area. too. the Russians
said they repulsed German tank
and infantry attacks, killing 400
Germans and overrunning four
strong points.
One German regiment. supported
by 40 tanks, led an assault in the
R1hev area. but the Russians said
they turned back seven enemy at
farks in the day