ww2 stalingrad

German drive threatens Stalingrad
 July 12-19, 1942
 
 
======= 

Although the Germans had reached the very gates of Voronezh, they were unable to take it by storm. Farther south, however, a rapid advance along the railways brought about the fall of Kantemirovka (south of Rossosh) and of Lisichansk (100 miles southwest of Kantemirovka) on July 12, and heavy fighting was in progress near Boguchar which, together with Millerovsk, the Russians were obliged to evacuate on the 15th. This created a dangerous bulge in the Russian lines which threatened the industrial city of Stalingrad, on the Volga, and the port of Rostov at the mouth of the Don. The Russian armies inside the Don bend fought fierce rearguard actions whilst retiring to their main defensive positions along the lower reaches of the river, but by the 16th fighting was taking place before Voroshilovgrad, and two days later the enemy was only seventy miles northwest of Rostov, and still advancing rapidly. On the following day Voroshilovgrad was evacuated by the Red Army in order to avoid encirclement. The pictures show: first, Russian sappers on the Voronezh sector crawling forward to clear a gap in a minefield for the passage of their tanks and infantry, and second, Soviet infantry equipped with automatic weapons.