Evening star., 1942-09-17
Tonks Plunge Into
volao City; Reds
Under Bomb Hail
9y.the vAssoeiatsd Press.

tt0A AVAAWVSVSAh oCCvAOAl VI JV0AAA
grad today after the gates Of the
city finally had been opened tt
the invaders by massed tanks.
Bombs rained down without let
up on the defending army-made ur
Of soldiers, Red marines and armed
civilians-and buildings within the
smoking city on the elbow of the
Volga aS waves Of NaM dive bombers
hurled themselves into the assault.
1t was apparent from field dis
patches that the German air force
held = clear numerical superiority
and was hard for Soviet flyers to
meet. F.. f.: -*
The Moscow radio announced the
invaders were maintaining their
advance, despite thousands OF
e&Mialties. >'
1(Reuters said today that the
Vchy Eradio-frequently inat-
ctirate-broadcast an uncon-
hrmed Bucharest report that the
Germans have occupied. Stain.
sfad. The German high COM
-mind communique today made
no such claim and no coniirma-
ton came from any other
quartef.)s =;
Fight Net Lassenins.
Successful defensive actions we're
streased by the Soviet Information
Bureaus midday communique few
hours later, however, and Russian
field dispatches in no way intimated
that the fighting was lessened or
that the city was falling.
TN the northwestern outskirts of
etahngrad, enemy automatic rife
men supported by tanks were re-
pulsed by q Soviet infantry unit"
the scommunique said. six tanks
were disabled or set on fire by anti
tank rife fire, hand grenades and
llicendiary bottles. The enemy auto
matte rifienien were surrounded and
wiped out"
ABOUT $50 Germans were reported
slain on other sectors Of the Stalin-
grad defense zone in engagements
which frequently developed hand
to-hand fighting. Nazi tanks, arm
ored cars and ammunition; trucks
were brought under the damaging
hre Of Red Army artillery. As.,
Fury Of Battls TrensnAeas.
Tremendous fury was reported in
the lighting In the northwestern sec
ton, with the Germans swarming
into every house they could seize.
They hred from attics and cell
lars, 4 dispatch said, but the Red
Army men elected them from many.
Dispatches left no doubt that the
German air force was raining bombs
continually. on the weary Russian
lighters, eapitalizing on 4 numerical
superiority seldom II ever before at
bained in the German Russian war.
The army Newspaper Red Star
said the sky over the city was swarm
ing with both dive bonbers and
hish-level squadrons and declared
chat the fate Of the city depended
on tn skill and courage of the avail
able Soviet fighter pilots.
Nasis Shift Air Forces.
German planes were reported
previously to have been rushed from
many distant sectors, including
North Africa, for the assault and the
government newspaper Izvestia said
documents found in the ruins of 4
downed Junkers transport showed
that 1t had been hown to Stalingrad
from the Netherlands.
Several hundred thousand troeps
-"seyeral tens of divisions"-were
declared by Izvestia TO have been
concentrated BY the German COM
mand for the push that broke into
the outskirts. ], ~. -.
Transport planes brought up fresh
forces and poured them into the bat
tie. Plane landings this close to the
front indicated the Germans we're
Abls to establish landing f1elds I'm
msdiatey outside the city.
Red Star said 5000 Germans were
killed during counterattack in the
6i1yavino. area of the, Volkhov River
front and fighting famed on. the
central front, In the. upper Don
Basin and along the Terek River
valley OF the Caucasus.
Major attention, however, was
commanded BY the battle OF Stain
Urad.
Mani Tanks Wiped Ont.
German tank groups were re-
ported cartier to have cut into Red
Army lines on the northwestern
fringes Of the Soviet nerve center
only to suffer extinction at the
hands OF Russian gunners and
grepadiers still striking back power
fully In the 24th day OF 4 light to
the death.
The admission that armored de-
tachments Of Field Marshal Fedor
Won Books siege forces were hard
on the northwestern outskirts was
contained in the midnight COM
n1unique, even though 1t emphasized
the .repulss OF attacks. ...a
A change OF pressure was noted in
the NaEi assault tactics in the sweep
against the bomb-ravaged and
smoking city from the northwest, for
recent emphasis had been on the
west and southwestern fronts.
'tOn one sector individual groups
Of enemy tanks drove wedges intc
our. .defenses, but they were wiped
out In the heavy nshting that en-
sued" the, midnight communique
said. So -. -
1t noted the rout OF 4 Rumanian
rife regiment, the humiliation Of 4
German infantry battalion and the
destruction Of 13 Nazi tanks and "a
motor vehicles in other areas of the
defense arc anchored on the Volga
Soviet fighter planes were declared
to have shot down 80 German air
craft. Red Army mortar crews were
credited with silencing several Nazi
mortar and artillery batteries.
German troops harassed by So
Wet nre. south Of the Terek River
IN the MoGdok area Of the Central
Cauc1s1s,- launched counterattaeks
Z 1see RUSSIA. Page A-5o5
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