je= : i fi f f i Review of the Eastern Battlefront Owever, it was only half the t set by the Soviet people. The ory of war knows few exam- /of such rapid, resolute change n the defensive to the offens- Aithough Hitler's summer aS remained unfulfilled, his qerals were more than content fig in on the open Volga and { steppe and bide their time > the winter. id not the ill-starred Fuehrer r all scrap his 1942 plans at end of September and plead 21 his troops for one more all push”? All he asked was :ed a trifle after the Germans’ odd mile advance, if measured niles—Stalinerad and Grozny. ‘ while his troops for three ‘ths stormed this Russian city the Volga, the Soviet defend- not only held their ground prepared conditions for the | Army's own defensive. he Nazi casualties, the guns, KS and other war materials tured by the Soviet troops dur- the first days of the offensive le Sreatest since the beginnings she war—reveal the magnitude the Red Army’s victory. More n 26,000 Nazis were killed and ther 24,000 taken prisoners in first four days. Soviet troops tured 557 guns, 2,826 automo- S, 2,625 machine guns, 1,200 way cars, 32 intact planes and intact tanks. e (HOLE full details are not yet available, first dispatches i'm Soviet war correspondents eal the thoroughness of the i Army’s preparation and the ellent interaction and coopera- 1 of all arms of the service. rverywhere the Red Army is sting with strong Nazi defenses ig mine fields, barbed wire en- glements, boobytraps. ‘raciically every inhabited point 1 been turned into a fortress the Germans, and the open ppe gave the WNazis a chance ‘keep the terrain under fire. wever, the enemy, demoralized the suddenness of the Soviet ack and heavy shelling, was in position to checic the onslaught the Soviet troops. forthwest of Stalingrad the ‘mans concentrated thousands Soldiers and a considerable ount ef equipment. Soviet in- itry and tanks went into at- i after an intensive artillery ‘paration, and although kept to » ground, the Germans never Jess attempted to cover them- ves with a protective screen of >. But the Nazis were too late. soviet troops had already wedg- into their positions. One Nazi ision which tried to eut ough the Soviet wedge was npletely encircled and wiped =; and a second Wazi division the same sector was over- en by a similar fate. VERYWHERE Soviet artillery demonstrated its superb quali- s. Everywhere the first shells re aimed at the most vulnerable ts of the Nazi defenses. secause of the excellent work ie by Soviet reconnaissance, artillery from the very out- of the attack put the Nazi amMunication centers and ob- vation noints out of commis- hn, paralyzing . the enemy’s 9PS and causing confusion not y amone the ranks, but also one the Nazi officers. Bat- ons, regiments and in some cases e€ven divisions were without leadership:-——— South of Stalingrad, where the Soviet troops were concentrated on the eastern bank of the Volga, left 2 were taken by surprise can be judged by the fact that the entire reserve battalion of the 14th Ru- manian infantry division headed by its commander, Major Fagari- ‘HE Red Army’s offensive in the Stalingrad area once again demonstrates that Stalin’s statements about the situation on the eastern front reflected in the action of the Red Army. During the past seventeen months, while the world was being treated to the numerous Nazi communiques and many observers were weighing the pros and cons of whether Russia would hold out, Soviet troops, displaying unparalleled cour- + and heroism, single-handed checked the Nazi hordes in the fiercest battles ever fought. That in itself was already a victory. Was unable to withstand the stun-— ning blow.” “Reality disproved the German assertions that the Red Army's strength was undermined, its re- serves completely exhausted and that it would unquesuonably be movements to the initial positions S20, Surrendered. for the offensive were extremely e hazardous, x The difficulty presented by the icy waters of the Volga had to be surmounted and the flat steppe made daylight movements impos- Sible. Despite this, the Soviet off- ensive came as a complete sur- prise to the Nazis in this sector too. As soon as the German defenses were pierced, Soviet cavalry and mobile units pressed forward under cover of night cutting the Stalingrad-Tikhoretskaya railway line and capturing the Abgonerovo Station. 2 The extent to which the Nazis Hitler culties. facing blows are ture Stalingrad. Don plains. OMMENTING on the new of- fensive, the Soviet press sees increasing diffi- “The Red Army’s consecutive upsetting: plans,” declares Pravda. “Recent- ly Hitler again promised te cap- spend the winter in peace on the The Red Army is scattering Hitler’s dreams and de- stroying his illusions. Worn down by many months of fighting, bled white at Stalingrad, Hitler’s army incapable of undertaking any of- fensive operations,” says a Red -Star editorial. ‘In this light the tremendous role of Stalingrad’s defenders becomes clear. Thanks to their persistence and courage the Red Army was able to effect preparation and carry out an operation on the flanks of Ger- man troops which besieged the city. “rom the very beginning the stubborn defense of Stalingrad laid the foundation for future offensive operations by Soviet troops. It is fully obvious that retaining the Stalingrad base, the Hitler’s He expected to ééq UX father like son,” the old saying goes. But “like mother, like daughter,” might well be the modern version, at least that’s what I thought after talking to Elena Payilehenko, Ludmilla’s mother. It is not strange that Ludmilla is a soldier and a heroine for she was born into a family of fighters. : During the civil war when she was but a year old, her mother was serving with the young Red Army at the front. Her father worked in the famous Putilov plant in St. Petersburg, was among the original Red Partisans of 1917 and fought all through the civil war. Elena Pavilchenko in no way resembles a warrior. She is a small rather frail looking woman with streaks of sray running through her brown hair. : But the fighting spirit is still there at 46 and she told me how disappointed she was when her application to join the People’s Guards was rejected last year. e FTER the end of the civil war the Pavil- the mother taught in a country school. They later moved to Kiey where Ludmilla went to high school and worked in an arsenal plant at the same time. a Those were hard but happy days for the Pavilchenko family. “But during the civil war and later during the Five Year Plan we felt we were doing something worthwhile,’ Mrs. Pavilchenko told me, “that we were building with our own strength. And now we feel that those twenty- five years of labor and struggle to raise a family were not in vain and we have been amply repaid.” Tudmilla was the oldest child, then cam Valentina who is now 25 and the boy Slava who is now eleven years old. e qe old desire to enter college, the old yearning for higher education which she had never been able to acquire returned to 4 Mrs. Pavilchenko. She decided to realize her cherished dream despite all the hardships it might involve. She passed the entrance ex- aminations and entered college in the same class with her two daughters. And so for five years, mother and daughters studied to- Hier Mathez’s Daughtps chenkos moved to the Ukraine where_ A in a knapsack, walking for miles until they MOSCOW. gether. When she was graduated from college she was 41, Ludmilla 19. Although she planned to be a history teacher her health would not permit this and she accepted a position as director of the re- search department of the historical library in Kiev where she worked until she had to leave last year. e RS. PAVILCHENKO has not seen Iud- milla since the war began. As a matter of fact she saw her for the last time just eight days before the outbreak of the war when she left for a summer resort in Odessa where she was to spend her vacation. It was while she was there that Ludmilla volunteered for the Red Army. The first news of her was received by the family in March when they read in Izvestia that the “fearless girl sniper Ludmilla Pavilchenko killed over 100 Germans.” In the meantime Ludmilla worried about the family for she knew that the Germans had capturéd Kiey. But Mrs. Pavilchenko and Slava had left the beautiful Ukraine city taking with them only what they could carry could get a train. Her husband had been mob- ilized at the beginning of the war and she had no idea of his whereabouts until she reached Kharkov after a long and hazardous journey in the course of which her train was bombed and machine gunned by German planes. In Kharkov she made contact with her hus- band who had been demobilized. Afterwards because of poor health they went to Votkinsk, a town in the Udmurt Repubile where they are living at present. e S\N ee Mrs. Pavilchenko is proud of Iuudmilla, she is not partial to her and assured me that the other daughter Valentina who is employed in a war plant is in her way doing equally useful work for the front. “Tjudmilla is an ordinary Soviet girl,” she said in a soft quiet voice. “There are many like her. I am proud of course that she is my daughter and I am particularly proud that my daughter by her trip to America has been instrumental in helping to bridge the wide gap that for so many years separated our peoples.” | Great Soviet Offensive Sweeps Germans Back MOSCOW. are invariably “blitz victories” claimed Red Army was able to carry out Such an effective operation. “The jRed Army’s offensive at Stalingrad affords one more in- disputable proof of Stalin’s words that the Red Army and its per- sonnel have grown into a formid- able force, capable not only of re- Sisting the onslaught of the Ger- man fascist troops, but also of de- feating them in open battle and driving them back.” Loe before the beginning of the new Red Army offensive operation,” writes Izvestia,” the German army landed in a difficult situation on the Soviet-German front. The tactical successes of the German summer , offensive were incomplete. “The difficult situation of the Hitlerite strategists was aggravat- ed by allied operations in Africa. and by the grim Perspective of invasion of the Continent. “The Germans calculated to capture Stalingrad, but they failed. They calculated on entrenching over the winter but they were not allowed to. They calculated on a breathing spell to accumulate fresh strength during the winter, but this shall not happen.” pees again comments: “Hor nearly three months bat- tles unparalleled in world history have been in progresss in the Stalingrad area. Stalingrad’s de- fenders won immortal glory. With bated breath the world watched the gigantic battle on the banks of the Volga. The enemy hurled tens of his crack divisions and thousands of tanks and planes against the city, but a solid wall of Soviet people blocked the way to the armored Nazi brigands. “The enemy's furious frantic onslaught crashed against the heroism of the defenders of Stal- ingrad. They harkened to the call of their beloved country, a call demanding the utmost courage and strength, supreme selfless- ness, and high military skill. “The Hitler brigands calculated on crushing Stalingrad with tanks, but in two- months of fighting near the city walls they lost 800 steel monsters. 4 “They expected to clear the road to Stalingrad with bombs, but in two months they lost over 1,000 planes on the Volga steppes. “They expected that their di- visions would push the defenders of Stalingrad into the Volga, but in two months over 100,000 Ger~ man soldiers and officers perish- ed there. “FINHE Soviet people know that the enemy is not yet broken. There can be no doubt that the German invaders will yet embark upon new adventures, that they will make new attempts to carry out their bloody designs. Much effort will be required of the army and the people at the front and rear to complete the enemy “out. “The blows struck by Soviet troops in the Stalingrad and Val- dikavkaz areas testify that we ean and must clear Soviet soil of the Hitler brigands. The Soviet offensive in the Stalingrad area continues. It demonstrates once again the Red Army’s strength, fortitude and ability to inflict de- feat.”