Evening star., 1942-09-26
Reds Check Nazis on All Fronts
Seize Key StaIingrad Positions;
Germans Claim New Successes
Army Newspaper
Sees Possibility
Of Holding Foe
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, Sept. 26.-The Rus
slams today officially announced
the recapture of strategic posi-
tions both within besieged Stall
ingrad and on the German left
flank. and the roll of invasion
dead was reported increased by
about 5000.
Although Red Star, the army news
paper, pointedly pictured the enemy
as still able to inch forward over
his own mounds of dead, it sounded
an optimistic editorial note with the
message to Stalingrad's fighters that
'there now exists possibility to
hold the Fascists and repulse
them"
For the moment, at least, field
dispatches indicated the Germans
had been brought to halt on every
front Of the battle of Russia.
Nazi Counterattacks Checked.
Repeated German counterattacks
Against the Red Army striking
northwest of Stalingrad for relief
of the battle-worn garrison were
declared repulsed with heavy losses.
lone Soviet infantry unit killed
about 800 Germans and captured
100000 rounds of ammunition" the
noon communiQue said. I'm another
sector, Soviet troops repulSed an
enemy counterattack, advanced and
occupied more advantageous posi-
tions.
"1n this engagement 600 Germans
were killed and 10 tanks, IL guns
and several mortars and machine
guns were destroyed"
Valuable Position Retaken.
Recapture of a valuable position
by Stalingrad's Soviet street fight
ers had been advanced at midnight.
I'm one fierce street engagement"
1t was added, "a guard unit de-
stroyed 10 enemy tanks and killed
1856 Germans. In another sector our
troops repulsed an attack, wiping
out a company of enemy infantry
and capturing 6 machine guns, 6
mortars, 130 rifles and a quantity of
ammunition"
Heavy fighting persisted in the
Upper Don theater. Dispatches said
the Germans launched a four
pronged attack south of Voronezh,
800 miles northwest of Stalingrad,
with one regiment striking in each
direction. The maneuver was de-
clared unsuccessful.
North of the city. the Russians
captured an artillery position and
turned two captured guns on the
Germans. The Russians said they
killed 800 Germans in day.
Russians within Stalingrad, fight
Ing from make-shift barricades, fire.
blackened buildings and foxholes in
the damp earth, were undoubtedly
giving the Germans their stiffest
Opposition in toe-to-toe slugging
In this war.
Nazis Declared Wearing Out.
Red Star said the German forces
were wearing out and it was possible
for the Russians to hold them.
air force switched their attacks to
Volga crossings, evidently fearing to
rain more bombs on the complicated
battle area lest they annihilate their
own ground detachments.
NaZi divebombers maintained their
raids on Russian-held sectors both
by darkness and daylight. Despite
both the high altitude and low level
assaults, dispatches stressed that
food and munitions continued to
flow to the defenders from supply
stores on the east bank of the Volga.
Red Army forces in a sector of the
battle front northwest of Stalingrad
were credited with repelling 80
German counterattacks within a
period of 48 hours
The Red Nays Volga flotilla, per-
forming as one dispatch said like
river tanks" went into action anew
against German artillery, armored
concentrations and troops.
A Russian gun battery was de-
clared to have knocked out about
100 Nazi tanks and more than 100
troop-laden trucks in the last 20
days.
Gravity of Situation Stressed.
The gravity of the defense posi-
tion-despite the heroic Russian
stand and counterattacks-wa en-
phasized by Red Star in a graphic
sentence on the ebb and flow of the
scores of engagements which go to
make up the whole of the confused
battle.
The Fascists are crawling ahead
across mountains OF bodies and
burned tanks" it said.
Prisoners of war-human trophies
always denied to an army in re-
treat-straggled to the rear under
Soviet guards.
Range finders planted atop two
hills recaptured by Marshal Semeon
Timoshenko's shock divisions north
west of Stalingrad helped Soviet
artillery batteries to plant their
shells within gray-green invasion
columns moving up from the Don
bend.
Ceaselessly, however, German
field guns and bombers raked the
1uin-studded industrial center on
the Volga in an effort to level its
remaining buildings and decimate
the Russian soldiers and workers