Evening star., 1942-09-03
Russians Retreat
Southwest of
Besieged City
BY EDDY GILMORE,


man assault against stalingrad
from the northwest stood
checked at the very approaches
to the Volga city today, but to
the southwest the Red Army
again recoiled before the massed
tanks which drove a menacing
wedge into the most stubbornly
defended positions.
Both the noon communioue and
field dispatches announced a fur
ther retreat in this vital sector,
while 400 miles to the southwest a
similar retreat was made by the
Soviet forces defending the Black
Sea naval base of Novorossisk.
A dramatic battle was reported
northwest Of Stalingrad, where a
Russian anti-aircraft battery leveled
Its guns against so German tanks
charging into the approaches to the
city and stopped them until re-
Inducements arrived.
Anti-Plane Battery Halts Tanks.
The newspaper Izvestia said Ger
man planes dive bombed the north
western approach to Stalinerad
after which tanks appeared sud-
denly and rushed toward a Russian
aircraft battery. ,.
Swinging their guns to horizontal.
the anti-aircraftmen halted the
tanks, but two companies of Ger
man infantry trailing the machines
closed in about the battery.
Until nightfall the Russian gun
ners fought, wrecking II of the
tanks. The battery exhausted its
supply of shells, but the crews cap
tured a mortar and shells from the
enemy and held on to their position
through a night Illuminated by
rockets. They effectively blocked a
German supply route and in the
morning were relieved by tank and
troop reinforcements.
(Berlin broadcasSs said Stalin-
grad was now within range Of
German big guns, from the south,
implying that shelling soon would
contribute to the havic already
wrought within the Volga River
industrial center by Adolf Hit
ler's bombers.
tThe Vichy radio, heard In
London today, said German
forces were only 7 miles from
the center Of Stalingrad. The
Germans themselves did not
make this claim
Nazis Speed Reinforcements.
Hungarian and Rumanian divi-
slons were said to be speeding east
ward to swell the ranks of the Nazi
shock troops.
Guns famed through the night on
the Stalingrad ii ont and above Nov
orossisk, provisional Red naval
base on the Black Sea, the midday
communique disclosed. Bitterly, the
Russians fought to hold against in
tensified assaults.
Defensive feats were emphasized
by the communique.
Soviet troops who recently fought
their way back to the Kletskaya
area to harass the Axis flank within
the Don bend rerulsed an attack by
a German infantry regiment which
was supported By % tanks, it said,
adding:
Six enemy tanks were disabled
and more than 200 Germans were
killed and prisoners were taken"
In all, the communique said, 20
Nazi tanks were knocked out of
action and it indicated more than
l 200 Germans were killed in the
newly reported actions on the
battlef1elds.
The German command expended
IA German tanks and battalion of
Infantry in four vain attacks on a
Soviet-held village below Stalingrad,
but a new Russian withdrawal was
forced in another sector, it was an
nounced.
Four Red Army men among the
thousands northwest of the arsenal
city were officially credited with
having killed about so Germans
with bayonets and hand grenades.
Minor operations by scouts, snipers
and gunners were reported from
the Leningrad front, where autumn
IS already in the air.
Repeated counterattacks helped
(See RUSSIA, Page AID 80