Evening star., 1942-07-13
Nuzis Reach Town
200 Miles From
VoIgo River
By the Associated Press.


MOSCOW, July 13.-The Battle
of the Don Valley took a grave
new turn today, with the Ger
mans pointing a menacing spear
head toward the Volga and the
great industrial center of Stain
grad from bloodily-won positions
a scant 200 miles away.
After driving ITO miles eastward
In week, the Nazis were in the
vicinity of the town of Boguchar,
their deepest penetration of Soviet
soil thus far. and were throwing
tanks and planes by the hundreds
and men by the thousands into
their thrust.
With the position of the Red
armies becoming more precarious,
the fighting in this southern sector
today developed into a tWo-way
German drive, one across the Don
before Voronezh and the other
sweeping down the Don Valley be-
tween the Don and the Donets.
Both these operations are of suffi-
cient strength to carry unquestioned
threats to Rostov. the North Cauca-
sus and Middle Volga regions.
(The Vichy radio reported that
German forces had occupied
Pokrovsk in their intensified
drive on Rostov, at the southern
end of the Russian bat
tie line. Pokrovsk is less than 20
miles north of Taganrog and 40
miles northwest of Rostov, which
was the highwater mark of the
1941 German drive into RussiaD
Menace Growing.
The lower end of the German
drive across the Don Valley, which
has pushed the Russians from
Lisichansk, presented a menace of
growing proportions. There Mar
shall Semeon Timoshenko's forces
were in a new line of defense which
could not be less than 125 miles
north of Restov and 225 miles west
of Stalingrad.
In the middle sector, the German
operation which drove the Red
Army from Kantemirovka, 145 miles
south of Voronezh, to the Boguchar
area put the invader about 200 miles
west of the Volga at Stalingrad.
Should the offensive in the central
sector carry to Boguchar and the
Don Just beyond, it was obvious that
the Red Army could also be faced
with the task of stopping a two
directional drive on Stalingrad
itself. In some quarters here it
was held that such strategic sltu-
alton already existed.
Nazis Paying Heavy Price.
In still third drive, north of
Voronezh, the Germans were bat
tering at unyielding Soviet defend
ers of that communication center S
approaches. In this sector the Ger
mans were reported battling to ex-
pand their positions on the east
bank of the Don.
The Germans were achieving their
successes at tremendous costs in men
and equipment in this all-out smash
at the Caucasus, front-line accounts
said.
The Russians were giving up every
foot of ground grudgingly, strewing
land mines before the advancing
Germans and taking a tremendous
toll of German lives and machines
Russian dispatches said.
In the bitter fighting near Bogu-
char, a large group of German
troops managed to penetrate the
Russian defenses for considerable
depth, but today's midday Soviet
communique said the group hao
been wiped out" Five German
tanks were reported destroyed ano
$50 Germans killed.
The war bulletin described the
fighting around Boguchar as q
"heavy defense engagement against
advancing enemy forces"
435 Miles From Astrakhan.
The Germans have long, bloody
course to pursue before they cal
hope to cut off the Russians lane
approaches to the Caucasus from
the north, the Russians said. Bu
the advance to Boguchar put then
only 435 miles from Astrakhan, q
the mouth of the Volga on th
Caspian Sea. They already hav
cut the main Moscow -Rostov rail
way at Rossosh and are camped OF
the Don River at several places.
At Voronezh, the northern ancho
of the 200-mile front now af1ame
the Russians were reported holdin
doggedly and even counterattackin
in some sectors against the tire
mendous weight of the reinforce
German forces.
The Russians said violent fight
ing was in progress there, with tn
liberal use of land mines taking