Evening star., 1942-09-10
Jops Advance on Port Moresby
After Crossing Barrier Range;
Sto|ingrod Defenses Stiffened
Soviet Front Swept
By Roins, Presoeing
Winters Approach
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, Sept. 10.-Cold rains
swept the Stalingrad battlefelds
today and Red Army defenses
stiffened again to exact a deadly
toll after repeated German power
drives had overrun two more
villages west of the city.
A similar dramatic revival of
attack which cost the Germans more
than 1000 killed and destruction of
nine tanks-was reported from the
Novorossisk front, where the in
vaders had wedged dangerously into
defense positions.
Front-line developments of the
day were coupled with an official
declaration that 73 Axis divisions
had been broken and routed by the
Red Army from May l through
August.
New German Forces in Line.
The rains ended heat wave
which had attended the battle of
Stalingrad and presaged the ap-
proach of wintry conditions which
might hamper Adolf Hitler's huge
mechanical forces.
But Field Marshal Fedor Won Book
obviously was maneuvering in an ef-
fort to obtain a quick knockout. New
German forces were concentrated
west of Stalingrad. Red Star, the
Soviet military newspaper, said one
of his wedges was threatened by a
flanking blow.
Field dispatches said Russian
Withdrawals had been orderly and
Izvestia reported that the soldiers,
fully conscious of the danger hang
ing over Stalingrad, are defending
every inch of their dear land"
Bayonet clashes were frequent.
From sunup to shutdown the Russians
fought beneath waves of German
bombers, attacking in formations OF
six to eight.
Ability of the German command
to replace worn veterans with re-
serves permitted unceasing pressure
aground.
Dead Strewn on Western Sector.
Russian infantry, mortarmen and
machine-gun crews left more than
$50 German and Rumanian dead
strewn on the sector west of Stalin-
grad in repulsing a series of at
tacks, the midday communique re-
ported.
Southwest of Stalingrad," it
said, "our troops repulsed attacks
by the enemy and inflicted heavy
losses, In one sector alone eight
German tanks were destroyed and
about company of enemy infantry
was wiped out
Russian troops were reported
crowding lethaly at the heels of
! Germans turned back in the MOI
dok area of the Central Caucasus
wiping out more than regiment
of infantry and So German tanks
in three days of fighting.
| Several new German crossings of
the Terek River in the Mozdok
region were reported destroyed and
all dispatches mentioned strong
Soviet air power there. Nazi sur
vivors were declared driven back
to the rivers edge in some places.
Nazis Trapped in Valley.
| Red Star said the Russians used
encirclement tactics and "battled
| for the complete determination OF
the remnants of the enemy landing
! groups"
Two companies of Russian noun
tain troops trapped a group of Ger
mans advancing through a valley
and moved them down with ma
chine guns and automatic rifles
the newspaper reported.
Gains were recorded also west o1
Moscow.
I'm one sector of the central from
our units killed more than 300 Ger.
man officers and men," it was an
nounced. Our artillery barragt
destroyed five blockhouses, min,
dugouts and an observation post
disabled three German tanks anc
silenced five mortar batteries ant
one artillery battery"
Pravda said that at Novorossisl
a, the Germans made new attemp
to land infantry from the sea be
hind Russian lines, but we're beatel
off with the loss of four cutter
and two torpedo boats.
Russians Abandon 2 Settlements.
Russian troops, exhausted an
deafened after fighting off Stuk
bombers, massed tanks and infan
try for 48 hours, withdrew yester
day from two settlements in tn
western arc of Stalingrads heavil
hammered defenses.
tThe settlements were not iden-
tilted, but they apparently were
among suburban villages clus-
tered along the Stalingrad-
kaya Railway and Sarena Greek
for miles from the western lin
its of the Volga River industrial
center. A Berlin broadcast de-
clared that a Nazi vanguard
had driven to the city itselfD
The midnight communique sal
Germans and Rumanians strikin
down the Black Sea coast of tn
+ Caucasus, despite tremendous losse
af1eld, broke into the Northwestern
l outskirts" of Novorossisk (Which tn
Germans claimed Sunday.
Ground gunners immobilized fiy
heavy NaZi tanks, killed sever;
, hundred men and dispersed two ir
! fantry battalions, and Soviet flyel
destroyed motorized column as
approached defense positions in tt
region of the former Red naval sts
= ton, the Russians said.
d German losses were stressed ais
# in the 16-day-old battle of Stair
d grad, where Marshal Won Book cor
a centrated Is picked divisions of
it 1000 ,000-man army in bloody e
, fort to sever Moscow contact wit
the Caucasus and wreck war plan
n and communications along the low,
Lp1no