Evening star., 1942-09-11
Record Number of
Men in Bottle,
Russians Say
By the Associated Press.

pOWeTIui army tne Germans ever
assembled in Russia, surprising
even the great force which they
flung in vain at Moscow last
year, was reported today to have
been commanded by Adolf Hitler
to take Stalingrad at any price.
But that Volga bastion still held.
The Russian Army newspaper Red
Star said the Axis forces before
Stalingrad outnumbered those of
any previous campaign. About a
million men in all participated in
the battle for Moscow last fall, hith-
erto the greatest single engagement
of the war.
Dispatches said attackers and de-
tenders were fighting in a maelstrom
of noise, fire and smoke, planes
filling the sky with their roaring
and screaming and the ground shak-
ing to the clash of tanks and the
thunder of bombs and shells.
Serious Comment by Press.
The remarkable editorial in Red
Star set serious tone for the
days press comment, exhorting the
defenders to fight to the last, recall
ing the grim measures taken by
Joseph Stain for the defense of
the city in 1918 against White Rus
sian forces.
In defense of Tsaritsyn, as Stain
grad then was called, Stain ordered
no retreat and sent all river vessels
up the Volga to remove the only
means of flight. Red Star said that
now as before there is no way back
from Stalingrad"
(This might indicate that apart
from removal of river vessels
the bridges across the Volga at
Stalingrad's rear had been de-
stroyed. The Germans doubtless
have made the Volga bridges
targets of their heavy air at
tacks.)
Documents Captured.
Red Star said that captured docu-
ments showed that Hitler demanded
immediate occupation of Stalingrad,
but that the city continues to be
inaccessible to the enemy"
The midday communique an
nounced that German automatic
rif1emen infiltrated western defenses
of Stalingrad where Nazi shock
troops won three more outlying viii
lagos yesterday, but more than 100
of the rif1emen were slain
The fall to the Axis of another
settlement southwest of the Volga
River industrial center was recorded
and, for the first time in several
days, fighting was reported south
of Stalingrad.
Fight to Last, Men Told.
Red Star exhorted the troops.
Fight to the last, but keep Stain
grad"
(The Russian feat in holding
the Germans from Stalingrad
for II days after the pincers of
Field Marshal Fedor Won Book
closed on its approaches is rem
iniscent of the 27-day defense of
Sevastopol against an enemy Of
fensive which finally over
whelmed that Soviet Black Sea
naval base in the Crimea last
July 4.
(Stalingrad, however, has none
of the mountainous natural bar
riers such as screened Sevasto-
pol and probably has fewer fixed
heavy Notifications. How many
men Marshal Semeon Timoshen-
ko has assigned to guard it is
question, but field dispatches
have repeatedly reported them
outnumbered.
(The Won Book striking forces,
estimated as high as 100000
troops, apparently total twice
those which Marshal Fritz Won
Mannstein threw into the cli-
mactic Crimean campaign)
Street Fighting RACES.
While heavy defensive fighting
and counterattacks occupied the
men of Stalingrad, street engage
ments ragged on at the Black Sea
port of Novorossisk, the Russians
pursued mopping-up tactics In
trans-river fighting in the Terek
Valley of the Central Caucasus and
the Red Army of the central front
registered new gains, the Russians
said.
Red infantrymen before the west
ern gates of Stalingrad were reported
to have repulsed three German at
tacks, destroyed six tanks and wiped
out two enemy companies.
Soviet counterattacks to the south
west were reported to have account