Evening star., 1942-12-01
Allies Lengthen TunisianWedqes,
One Force Reported Near Coast;
Hitler Plea Spurs Nazis in Russia
Told Rzhev Loss
Would Equal Fall
OF Half of. Berlin
BY EDDY GILMORE,
Associated Press War Correspondent


MOSCOW, Dec. 1.-Adolf Hit
ler's own appeal was reported
today to be squirting the Nazis
in desperate, but unsuccessful,
fight to recapture railway lines
south of Rzhev and southwest of
Velikie Luki on the central Rus
sian front west of Moscow.
So vital is Rzhev to the Germans
vast network of communications
said Red Star, that Hitler tele-
graphed his commander there en-
phazing the threat to the city and
warning that the loss of Rzhev is
equal to the loss of half of Berlin" :"
Every thrust in a new series of
counterattacks was beaten off, the
army newspaper said.
(The BBC, heard in New York
by CHS, said the Russians and
Germans already were locked in
fierce fighting within Rzhev and
a London Evening News dispatch
from Stockholm said Russian
shock troops were battling the
Germans from house to house.
CThe Russians, in an earlier
offensive, had closed pincers
around Rzhev from north and
south and had won a foothold in
the city's outskirts. There has
been no indication that they ever
were dislodged. The new report,
therefore, may refer to Russian
forces attacking from wedges
long since cut into the Nazi de-
fenSes.)
Counterattacks Near Stalingrad.
Axis troops trapped before Stalin-
grad also were counterattacking but
there, too, Russian reports said.
stiffening German resistance had
failed to stem the Red Army's
drives.
With another $500 invaders listed
by the noon communique as killed
in overnight fighting, Red Star said
German losses in dead were close to
125,000 on the two fronts. (The toll
announced in communiques so far,
however, totaled only 91,550D
Within Stalingrad itself, the Soviet
garrison was said to be making slow
but steady progress in heavy fight
ing. There were no reports, how
ever, that the besiegers had been
driven from any areas of major i'm
portance.
One dispatch said the Russians
had advanced from three to six
miles near Stalingrad" but did not
specify whether this was northwest
or southwest of the city.
In addition the Russians moving
southwest from Stalingrad down the
Tikhoretsk railroad near Kotelnik-
ovskl, have taken a number of pop
ulated centers in sharp clashes with
enemy rear guards.
Nazi Transports Drop Food.
Northwest of Stalingrad German
transport planes were said to have
dropped food and munitions to en-
circled garrisons.
The Russians said NaZi officers
were trying to conceal from their
men that they were cut off. How
ever, these probably we're Isolated
though strong - enemy units, and
Soviet dispatches did not intimate
that the whole enemy army had
been surrounded between the Volga
and the Don.
Snow and fog hampered air op-
erations in that area, but the Rus
slams also put planes in the air and
said about 300 Nazi infantrymen had
been killed in two days by Red Army
bombing and aerial machine-gun-
ming assaults.
The Germans were reported to
have developed Notifications in great
depth to wall off Rzhev, but the
Red Army was said to be penetrat-
ing them with artillery and tanks
leading the way for cavalry and
infantry.
The struggle for the railroad con-
Meeting Rzhev and Vyazma appeared
all the more important, for Red
Star said after the Red Army's Of
fensive last winter deprived the Ger
mans of what then was the main
line OF communication Rzhev-
Riga line-supplies to Nazi troops
were moved to the central front by
way OF Vyazma into Rzehev.
Reds Scouting Near Bryansk.
Although the railroad is only a
single track line, the Germans were
able to send more than a score of
trains daily each way before Soviet
troops severed it.
AS winter moves in, covering the
roads over vast areas with deep
snow, Importance of the supply lines
in the area grows. In a document
captured by the Russians, the COM
mander of the 9th German tank di-
vision, operating in the battle, was
quoted as appealing: Beg for aid
today. Tomorrow will be too late
Maj. Gen. Tarasov and Mai. Gen
Povetkin were credited with leading
(See RUSSIA, Page A-18)