The Rhinelander Daily News from Rhinelander, Wisconsin • Page 1

RHINELANDER DAILY NFWS JIX1 111 1 1 TJLdi YV 166 RHINELANbER, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2S, 1942 6 PAGES TODAY PRICE FIVE CENfS Henderson Asked To Outline Possible Control Action WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (IP) Farm bloc defections spurred the seriate leadership today to call for help from Price Administrator Leon. Henderson in an effort to placate agriculture's demands for higher food prices. Fighting an uphill battle, administration leaders decided to ask Henderson to outline the actions he would take if congress should adopt a compromise amendment to tho anti-inflation bill. The amendment would direct President Roosevelt to lift farm price ceilings where they did not reflect increased labor and other costs to producers.

It was offered by Democratic Leader Barkley of Kentucky as a substitute for a proposal by Senators Thomas (D-Okla) and Hatch (D-NM) to move the parity standard upward by making farm labor costs ah integral part of its base. Under the bill passed by the house and now pending before the senate, which directs President Roosevelt to stabilize prices, wages and salaries at -Sept. 15 levels, so far as practical, no ceiling could be placed on farm products below parity. Since it would be Henderson who actually would administer the price controls under the bill, Senator Nye (R-ND) said he and others from farm states would feel more disposed to consider, a compromise if they knew what Henderson would do if it were adoated. Proposal Wins Support.

The Barkley peace 'proposal won the support of Senator Norris (Ind- Neb), who had favored the Thomas- Hatch amendment despite President Roosevelt's "unalterable" opposition to it. In addition, Republican Leader McNary (Oregon) was reported to be seeking to convince other farm bloc members they ought to support Barkley's plan because it would include both labor and other cost increases in fixing farm price ceilings. Talking to reporters at the start of the fifth day of debate, Barkley senators" who previously had been backing the amendment by Thomas and Hatch had informed him they would vote for the substitute proposal. However, Thomas told reporters he thought the compromise was "a meaningless jumble of words" and would insist on a vote first.on the amendment he and Hatch offered. vThere were -reports that, in order to avoid a prior vote on the Thomas- Hatch proposal, the administration leadership might move during the day to send the bill back to the banking committee for speedy redrafting to include the compromise provision.

If this occurred, the Thomas- Hatch amendment would lose its favorable parliamentary position nnd the. administration compromise would come to a vote first. Decision Not Expected. Barkley said there was little chance of any decision by the senate today on any of the major points in the bill, indicating that a showdown might be postponed until Monday. The leadership faced a difficult parliamentary situattpn, however, in that the senate appeared headed for a vote first on the Thomas-Hatch proposal.

Conceding that this amendment was likely to be written into the bill, they expressed confidence the Barkley amendment then would be adopted in its place. This would nullify the first action. Even if the senate passed the bill with the Barkley substitute in it, the measure would have to be reconciled with a version in which the house overwhelmingly wrote an amendment identical in language to that offered by Thomas and Hatch. Administration lieutenants left no doubt as to the fate of the latter measure, if it ever reached the president. Medic Seeks Second Crack at Hitler KANSAS Sept.

25 Dr. Michael Bernreiter, instructor at the University of Kansas school of medicine, once threw a 32-ounce beer stein at Adolf missed. Next week he'll join the United States medical corps as a captain, still seeking a chance to destroy the fuehrer. In 1922 as a medical student he sat in a Munich beer hall listening to a thin-voiced speaker named Hitler. The speech started a riot, into the midst of which Bernreiter threw his heavy stein.

"Apparently," he sighed "it missed Hitler." Correspondent Of Attacks on Convoy Editor's note: The following story, by a Reuters correspond- ent with the Briish home fleet, i is based on his journey to a Russian far northern port with a large Allied convoy which the German high command claimed was all but destroyed through the sinking of 38 out of 45 cargo ships. The British admiralty announced that a great majority of the ships reached their destination and that the convoy had fought its way back. By ARTHUR OAKESHOTT ABOARD THE BRITISH CRUISER SCYLLA, CONVOY FLAGSHIP, AT to The largest convoy ever taken to Russia is feeling its way through the danger belt north of Scandinavia. All hands are at action stations keyed up for the inevitable clash. We know that a powerful German air force is lurking in wait.

Then loudspeakers crackle. The tension breaks. Words we have been expecting blare their warning: "A large group ol enemy aircraft approaching on the starboard bow." Beside me the yeoman of signals, binoculars to eyes, counts them aloud. "One two three 10 42 coming in sir, Where's me bloody tin hat. I can never find it when I wants it." So it started, a prolonged and concentrated assault.

"The worst bombing attack of the war," Rear Adm. R. L. Burnett, commodore of the escorting force, called it. They are coming in.

Forty two roaring streaks of streamlined death, each carrying two torpedoes some are JU-88's. Others are Heinkel twin- engined heavy bombers. Only Few Feet Above Water. They come in a long line only a few feet above the surface of the water, fanning out as they approach. The vast convoy stretches out on either side of the Scylla protected by the largest destroyer escort ever known.

The battle is joined while the enemy still is many miles from the merchant ships. We hear the flash and roar of big guns from the outer screen of destroyers followed immediately by the staccato rattle of multiple poqjjpoms the "Chicago pianos." Shel 1 bursts are soon joined in Arctic air by long streams of cerise-colored tracer shells from the Oerlikon guns (anti-aircraft weapons). Then as the planes zoom over cne destroyer screen, hell breaks loose. Nothing else can describe it. The port guns of the destroyers open up, followed immediately by every gun in the convoy from the smallest merchant ship to the ''big stuff" aboard the Scylla.

From then on the battle becomes a whirling maelstrom of shells, bullets, tracers, of black, blue, brown and gray smoke bursts. The zoom of aircraft and the crashing of bursting shells add to the din. Few Losses. From time to time we hear a crash as the torpedoes find their but nothing like the NazisHioped. Columns of smoke rise up into the low-hanging clouds.

Bursts of flame spout forth and yells triumph rise as plane after plane hits the sea and sinks. Now the battle tekes on a new phase. Hurricanes rush off from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Dogfights are going on above the clouds, below the clouds end in breaks through the clouds or low over the seas. Junkers and Hfeinkels twist and turn, dive and climb, slip and roll to avoid the relentless pursuit.

Gradually the noise of the battle dies away as the surviving Germans, having dropped their loads, -streak for by myriads of shells. Those that dive low to Ihe sea to avoid the high bursts are met with cunningly placed Oerlikon tracer shells that ricochet off the water and "plunk" into fuselage and cockpit. It seems hardly any time before a calm voice announces that there are 25 more Junkers 88's or Heinkels coming at us. This time they carry bombs as well as they have miscalculated. They are met before they reach the Convoy by a drove of Hurricanes which breaks up the formation.

This time there are no sinkings and the luftwaffe loses more planc-s to our aircraft and ack-ack ships. Another short breather. Then the alarm goes not before a seaman has time to approach an officer and say, "Please sir, can we borrow some darts to pass the rime away." Allied Planes Blast Enemy Island Ports GENERAL MAC ARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS, Australia, Sept. 25 Allied fighter planes continued their devastating attacks on Japanese- communication lines in New Guinea yesterday while bombing formations blasted enemy shipping and shore installations in New Britain, Timor and the Solomon islands, Gen. MacArlhur's headquarters announced today.

Huts containing stores and equipment were left in flames, a com- munique said, by a strong force of Allied fighters which strafed the airdrome at Kokoda, advance base for the Japanese column attempting to push across southeastern New Guinea toward Port Moresby. Another lormation bombed a bridge near Fairopi, over which the Japanese have been attempting to move supplies for their troops across the deep gorge of the Kumasi river. "The over the chasm by previously had been damaged by Allied and Japanese patrols was reported, meanwhile, in the vicinity, of loribaiwa, 32 miles from Port Moresby, where the invaders have been stalled for more than 10 communi- que said in the general: situation: i The attack on New Britain island, east New Guinea, was carried out in moonlight by a force of flying fortresses. The bombers were credited officially with scoring a direct hit amidships on an 8,000 ton cargo ship in the harbor of Rabaul. When last seen the vessel was blazing fiercely and probably sank later, the communique said.

An allied spokesman said there was a considerable concentration of both warships and merchant vessels at Rabaul and the Allied raiders reported- they were met with heavy anti-aircraft fire. All returned safely, however. Hershey Warns War Industries CLEVELAND, Sept. 25 industries face the choice of speeding the replacement of workers temporarily deferred from the draft or getting along without them, warns Maj. Gen.

Lewis B- Hershey. Asserting war plants have not made sufficient efforts to replace employes granted temporary deferments, the national selective service director last night threatened to "take men from them as a disciplinary measure, even if it means some sacrifice in production." "If a man can be taught in eight month to fly the intricate mechanism that is an army bomber, don't try to tell the draft boards any longer that it takes a year to replace a certain worker," he told a public meeting. 'School Victory Corps' Created for Nation's Students WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (fP) Creation of a war-inspired "high school victory corps," open to all of the 6,500,000 students in the lion's 28,000 public and private ondary schools, was announced to- 1 day by War Manpower Chief Paul V. McNutt.

Established to give "every school student in the United the opportunity to take a definite place in the national war effort' through a voluntary enrollment plan," the corps will be headed by Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, aviation leader and flying ace of the first World war. Simultaneously with the announcement here, state school superintendents throughout the coiun- try were asked to call on school boards and officials to launch the program locally as soon as possible. A manual recommending methods of organization was sent to all school superintendents and high school principals along with this statement from the national policy committee for the corps: "A realistic appraisal of our need for trained manpower, both in the armed forces and in' war production, makes it evident the high school can't go on doing business as usual." I Two Aims of Corps. Two aims of the corps were set forth as: "First, immediate, accelerated and special training of youth for that war service they will be expected to perform after leaving school; second, active participation of youth while still in school in the community's war effort." Objectives to be pursued "both inside and outside the classroom" were given as: "Guidance of youth into critical services and occupations; wartime citizenship training to insure better understanding of the war, its meaning, progress and problems; physical fitness; voluntary military drill for selected boys; competence in science and mathematics; preflight training in aeronautics for those preparing for air service; pre- induction training for critical occupations; community service, including training for essential civilian activities." Every Pupil Eligible.

Every high school pupil will be eligible to join the "general membership" of the corps, while those within about two years of completing high school will be eligible for admission to any of these five "spe.j! cial service divisions: Land service, which calls for pre- induction training for all branches of the army except the air; air service; sea service, which provides training for all branches of the navy except the air; production service, preparing for war industries and agriculture; community service, preparing for medical, nursing, teaching "and numerous and for Business and civic; services." Italian Planes Raid Gibraltar LONDON, Sept. 25 reported from Gibraltar today that several Italian planes raided Britain's western Mediterranean stronghold last night, causing an air alarm but no damage or casualties. Only a few bombs were dropped, all falling in the sea, because the fortress' anti-aircraft barrage drove the raiders off, the dispatch said. Training Plan-ss Collide, Eight Die WILLIAMS FIELD, Sept. 25 (IP) AT-11 training planes, each manned by a pilot, an instructor and two student bombardiers, collided and crashed in flames, killing all eight men.

Col. Bernard A. Bridget, commanding officer, reported the planes were making a routine training flight yesterday over a nearby bombing range in connection with bombardier instruction. Secretory Knox Inspects Canal Zone BALBOA, C. 2., Sept.

25 Secretary of the Navy Knox began an inspection of the newly strengthened Panama Canal Zone defenses today dfter a flight here from the United States aboard a naval seaplane. Knox, who last visited this area in December, 1940, arrived yesterday afternoon at the Coco Solo nav- Sl base on the Atlantic side of the Jsthmus, where he was greeted by Lieut. Gen. Frank Andrews, Caribbean defense zone commander, and Rear Adm. Clifford Van Hook, commandant of the 15th naval district.

A short time later he took off for the Pacific side in Gen. Andrews' plane, piloted by the general himself. (In Washington the navy department said Knox's trip to the Canal Zone was a "routine visit of American Captives In Philippines Estimated at 6,1 Fierce Battle Reduces Threat to Northwest Defenses of Stalingrad College Hall to Be Dedicated DE PERE, Sept. 25 Nearly 6,000 sponsors of the $300,000 residence hall at St. Norbert's college will be invited to take part in dedication exercises Sunday, Oct.

4. The sponsors are northern Wisconsin firms and private individuals whose contributions made the building possible. Principal speaker at the afternoon session on the bank of the Fox river will be the Rev. Raphael S. McCarthy, president of Marquette university, Milwaukee.

Aged Stevens Point Woman Succumbs STEVENS POINT, Sept. 25 The last member of a couple of whose combined ages totaled 201 years died yesterday at St. Michael's hospital. She was Mrs. Nettie Ligrnan, who celebrated her 100th birthday last Friday.

Her husband, Vladek Ligman, died in 1939 at the age of 101. They had been married 76 years at the time of Mr. Ligman's death. She is survived by five generations of descendants. Weather Score Killed in Triple Train Crash Forecast for Wisconsin: Slowly rising temperature this afternoon and extreme east portion tonight, becoming colder Saturday forenoon and west portion tonight; light to moderate snow tonight, and east portion Saturday beginning west portion late this afternoon; strong winds to- night and Saturday forenoon.

Hhinelander Weather: The temperature rose yesterday from a losv of 33 degrees to 41 and then dropped last night to 26. At 8 a. m. today the temperature was 28, at 10 a. m.

it was 31 and at noon, 37 degrees was recorded. The relative humidity was 49 per cent and the wind was from the west at 10 miles per hour. A total of .10 of aa inch of precipitation was recorded for the last 24 hours ending at 9 a- m. today. Weather Owe YeiM 1 Ago; Maximum temperature, 02; minimum, 42: precipitation, trace.

Wreckage of two passenger trains and a freight thatcrashed on the Baltimore and Ohio main line near Dickerson, Mxl.j killing at least 20 persons. Most of the viclixas were trapped in a burning Pullman car. WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 Lieut: Gen. Jonathan M.

Wainwright and.an estimated 6,000 other American defenders of Bataan and Corregidor were reported today to be war captives of the Japanese in a prison camp at Tarlac, north of Manila, in the A partial list of about 200 prisoners, compiled from information furnished by some of the small number of persons permitted to leave Manila, also contained the names of four other American and Filipino army general officers. General Wainwright, commander of the Philippine forces after Gen. Douglas MacArthur was ordered to Australia, was taken with the fall of Corregidor May 6. His fate and that of more than 60,000 others last reported on Bataan and Corregidor has since been in doubt. Those in the partial list of prisoners included Maj.

Gen. William F. Sharp, Monkton, commander of the American-Filipino forces on the southern island of Mindanao; Brig. Generals Lewis C. Beebe, a native of.

Ashton, Clinton A. Pierce, Sierre Madre, and Fidel of the Philippine army. The Tarlac prison camp is former American army camp O'Donnell, about 65 miles north of Manila. Definite information on how the war prisoners were faring was still lacking nearly five months after the loss of Corregidor, but Americans returning on the exchange ship Gripsholm pictured occupied Manila as a drab island capital, with hardships expected to increase since the start of the rainy season. Some 3,500 civilians are interned in the buildings and grounds of Santo Tomas university on the outskirts of the city, and an additional 1,000, mostly aged, ill or very young, are permitted to live in the city.

In Manila, virtually all home of Americans have been taken over by the Japanese. Stocks of stores have been either looted or consumed. Americans and Filipinos without exception were said to be required to dismount from conveyances to make bows to Japanese officers they may encounter. Trainman Charged With Manslaughter DICKERSON, Sept. 25 Railroad officials and state police today sought to identify 12 bodies removed from the charred and twisted wreckage of three trains whose collision was believed to have cost the lives of at least 20 persons.

Wreck crews worked throughout the night to pull apart the last pieces of the Pullman car in which most of the victims died when fire I followed the crash of two passenger trains and a fast freight. Railroad I officials said they still had not accounted for eight persons. A man who had been identifies previously by Baltimore and Ohio railroad officials as the engineer of one of the passenger trains meanwhile was charged with manslaughter. Magistrate William D. Clark of Montgomery county asserted that Maryland State Police Sgt.

John J. Ca.ssidy had sworn out a warrant charging that Raymond Rufus McClelland of Baltimore, "did felon- iously kill" J. M- Gilhart, first vic- tim to be identified. I Clark said he would hold'a hear- i ing on the technical charge of manslaughter, Oct. 16, and that meantime McClelland had been held under $3,000 bond.

The westbound track along this main line of the B. and O. was opened at 8:30 a. and workmen still were cutting away with acetylene torches at the log-jam of wreckage on the east track. The Pullman car, a Diesel locomotive, freight cars and steel pipe carried by the freight were wedged together in the deep cut where the crash occurred.

The wreck occurred yesterday morning near this village 35 miles northwest of Washington. The Cleveland night express stopped to engine trouble and sent out a flagman. Just as it was starting up, the Ambassador, from Detroit, piled into it from the rear. The impapt tossed the Pullman at the rear of the Cleveland train into a freight on the adjoining track. Escort Ships Sunk On Return Voyage LONDON, Sept.

25 The British lost the destroyer Somali and the minesweeper Leda in a convoy homeward bound from Russia after getting "the great majority" of the laden merchantmen through to Soviet northern ports, the admiralty disclosed today in an account of the sea'struggle in the Arctic ocean. Against the Allied losses, the admiralty announced 40 German planes were blasted from the sky, two U-boats were destroyed and four others damaged seriously during the inward and outward passages of the convoy by anti-aircraft fire and carrier-borne naval planes. "The task of the escorting ships was by no means 1 complete" when I the goods had been delivered to Russia, the admiralty related, and the commodore of the convoy "turned his force to fight the homeward bound convoy from Russia back through areas in which the enemy has concentrated in such large forces." On the outward journey, the admiralty previously had disclosed that most of the merchant ships carrying war supplies Russia had reached their destinations and that none, of the convoying warships had been lost despite Nazi air and U- boat attacks in the autumn dusk of the Arctic. Bound back, however, it said that Somali was torpedoed by a submarine and sank after breaking in two when she had been in tow in bad weather for more than three days. Japs Report Naval Forces in Atlantic TOKYO (From Japanese Broadcasts) Sept, 25 headquarters announced today that Japanese naval forces now were operating in the Atlantic "in close cooperation with the Axis navies." One Japanese submarine operating in the Atlantic, the bulletin added, "recently called at a certain German naval base and again set sail for strategic waters." (The Berlin radio announcement of the Tokyo communique added the wofds "in Europe" to the "certain German base" mentioned by the Japanese.

(This need not mean that any Japanese submarine reached a German port since it might have been refueled at an Occupied French base such as Bordeaux. (These were the first statements from any source concerning the purported presence of any Japanese naval units in the Atlantic.) The announcement said the operations of the Japanese navy in the Atlantic were "parallel to a German naval operation in the Indian ocean," which was not elaborated upon, and "highly significant as they represent joint Japanese-Axis' naval operations against the anti-Axis powers." Rail Employes Demand Pay Raise CHICAGO, Sept. 25 management and labor sources which declined to be quoted reported today that the 15 brotherhoods of non-operating employes had notified the carriers of demands for a 20-cent an hour wage increase, with a minimum of 70 cents an hour, and a closed shop. The sources said railroad operators employing members of tho brotherhoods were being served with notices of the demands at their executive offices throughout the nation today. Representatives ol the unions conferred in Chicago several days last week, then adjourned without announcing the purpose of the sessions or what action might be taken in the future.

Both non-operating and the "big four" operating unions of engineers, conductors, switchmen and trainmen and enginemen obtained wage increases a year ago through mediation processes set up under the national railway act. Terms of the settlement of last year's dispute w'ere reported tojiave provided for non em- ployes increases of nine cents an hour for the period from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, 1941, and an additional cent an, hour thereafter. The unions had asked increases of 30 to 34 cents an hour over the existing scale of 35 to 85 cents an hour.

Settlement of last year's dispute was expected by some sources to add from $300,000,000 to $325,000,000 a year to the carriers' payrolls. Among the larger non-operating unions are the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, express and Station Em- Electric Auto Donated for Scrap Sept. 25 ancient electric automobile which has sped noiselessly over city streets here for 22 years has gone to the war. The car, proprty of Mrs. C.

A. Hertel, has been donated to the salvage drive and will be scrapped. It'll make a lot of guns, too, since it weighs nearly 4,000 pounds. The vehicle was purchased in 1920 for $3,600. Dorothy Parker Passes Acid Tests PHILADELPHIA, Sept.

25 Dorothy Parker says she's sworn off making wisecracks for the duration. The writer with the reputation for a sharp tongue came here from her nearby farm home for a Russian war relief concert and commented: "Time enough for humor when there's something to laugh about." ployes, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, Order of Railroad Telegraphers and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. Willkie Visits Rzhev Front; Talks to German Prisoners By EDDY GILMORE MOSCOW, Sept. 25 a tour of inspection which carried him within six or seven miles of German-held Rzhev amid duelling artillery on the central Russian front, Wendell L. Willkie returned to this capital today.

He entered into the zone of artillery action and from a lofty vantage point saw Rzhev, where Russian soldiers were engaged in street fighting. Rzhev is about 130 miles northwest of Moscow. Clutching the sides of a leaping jeep, Willkie rode to the vicinity' of Rzhev, escorted by a Russian lieutenant-general. It was a 14-hour trip. Standing on a windswept hill, he i looked toward the city.

Jt was one I of the biggest thrills of his life, he! related. Cater he talked to seven German prisoners. To gee the front so intimately Willkie went two nights without sleep. He had no opportunity to pull the lanyard, of a Russian cannon, I as he said he would have liked to do, but the firing was under way about him for practically the entire time he was close to the front. Willkie was an artilleryman in the first World war.

The Rzhev front was the second battleline he has visited in the few weeks. He went up to the Egyptian front in the early part of his tour. Willkie said the German prisoners he talked to before Rzhev looked like they were dressed not for Russia's coming winter but for an African campaign. They wore loose, floppy cotton uniforms, and shivered in the cold and rain. With Lieut.

Gen. Lilyushenko of the Red army and a party of Americans, Willkie rode for miles across seas of mud He said he had a really first-hand opportunity to study the Russian troops at work and was very much impressed. The soldiers asked him, as a workers, when the United States and, Britain would establish a second front, he said. Tass Lists 25, Germans Killed In Past Week By HENRY C. CASS1DY MOSCOW, Sept.

25 army divisions held newly recaptured ground northwest of Stalingrad against German assaults and erased a threat to a flank of the smoking city's defense by ousting the invaders from several houses, the Russians said today. A savage battle was indicated northwest of the city, where Russian planes, tanks, heavy artillery and foot troops have struck repeatedly into the Germans' left wing. Field dispatches 'said Red army task forces had captured two hills and, in one sector, killed 900 Germans. "German attacks were repulsed," the noon communique said. "Soviet tank crews destroyed two German tanks and wiped out about two enemy infantry companies.

In fighting, for a populated place our troops wiped out about 500 Germans, prisoners and captured war iria- i teriel." The reformed defenses within Stalingrad were menaced for a time by a Nazi attack which overran a group of houses, but "Soviet troops counter-attacked and restored the situation." it was announced. Civilians Aid in Defense. "In another sector," the commun- ique said, "our mortar crews destroyed 12 trucks with troops and ammunition, set fire to three tanks and wiped out a battalion of enemy! infantry." Civilians of Stalingrad were reported to have poured out of their cellars, caves in the Volga cliffs and factory shelters and helped the Red army maintain its 31-day-old defense in streets, lanes and squares. Thousands had been withdrawn across the river, but others refused to leave. Dispatches said the fighting was so bitter that the combatants regarded even the surrender ot a house as a near calamity.

Unbroken by incessant bombing and tremendous assaults by infantry, tanks and tommy-gunners, the Russians battled on from wrecked buildings, barricades and The Volga river center was pictured by Konstantin Simonov, a Russian newspaperman, as a city of wreckage on trembling earth, lit by explosions and heavy with the odors of cordite and death. "On the river beach are the corpses of women and children killed by German bombs," he wrote. "The Stalingrad waterfront is a great patch of ruins. By night fresh Soviet troops cross the river on barges and boats. The wounded are removed the same The Russian army newspaper Red Star declared that no other city in this war had been such a battlefield as Stalingrad.

A military commentator quoted by- Tass, official Russian news agency, said the Germans had lost more than 25,000 dead in the course of the last week. Gunboats Wipe Out Enemy. Volga river gunboats, on minesweeping and transport duty when they are not employed as combat were officially credited in operations yesterday with the destruction of eight German siege guns and a large group of troops. The midnight communique referred to the drive northwest of Stalingrad as "active operations" during which Soviet troops advanced somewhat in some- sectors. The exact area and extent of the penetrations were not specified.

"The enemy made repeated attempts to regain heights which our units occupied yesterday," it said. "During the day the Hitlerites made seven counter-attacks which were beaten off by our troops. The enemy suffered heavy losses." The Soviet information bureau said Russians "withdrew from a populated place" after tense fighting in the central Caucasus, but emphasized Nazi losses with a declaration that the fire of one Red army gun crew disabled 12 tanks and wiped out a company of German cavalry. "Stubborn engagements with the enemy" were noted in the Sinya- vino area of the Volkhov front, where the Germans were said to be trying to drive a wedge into Russian positions. Russian artillery and mortar batteries have destroyed 26 enemy blockhouses and dugouts and various German weapons in this area near Leningrad in two days, while I snipers slew about 200 of the enemy, the noon communique said.

Defenders Learn Enemy "Heavy fighting rages day and night in the streets of Stalingrad." said a Tass commentary which elttb- orated on the nature of tank and anti-tank warfare on such strange terrain. "The courageous defenders oj the city bar the enemy's way, dealing him heavy blows. The Germans exert every effort to capture more streets but encounter stubborn sistaiice everywhere. "One street leading from the towards the Volga Jws been tbe object of scores of enemy there in successive ing to break our resistance by ce.s-.ant However, i Sec "Russia," 2..