CAPTURE OF SALSK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 88, 23 January 1943, Page 4

CAPTURE OF SALSK.

AFTER DETERMINED FIGHTING.

SOVIET MENACE DEVELOPS. RAILWAY JUNCTION TAKEN. (Rec. 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 22. ' Salsk, an important German communication centre 85 miles south-east of Rostov, has been captured by the Red Army after determined fighting. This was announced in a special Russian communique, which also reports the capture of Mikoyanshalchar, 100 miles south-west of Piatygorsk.

Soviet forces continue to develop menacing drives against the German communications on various sectors along the 600-mile front from Voionezh to the Caucasus.

Moscow correspondents report that the Russians’ northernmost wing is driving hard against the VoronezhKursk railway and nearing the Kastornoie Junction, where the VoronezhKursk line cuts the Yelets-Valuiki railway. The Russians north of Rostov, after crossing the Donets at several points, are approaching Likhnaya, the junction of the Stalingrad-Kharkov and Voronezh-Rostov' lines,, a little over 50 miles from Rostov. Other columns are converging on Lugansk, constituting another peril to the Axis position on the Lower Don. A new phase of the battle for Rosov opened after the Russians crossed the Manich River and the Manich Canal. Bot/h were unfrozen as a result of exceptionally mild weather. They had been regarded as a natural defence for Rostov.

Threat in the Caucasus. The capture of Salsk greatly increases tlie threat to the Germans in the Caucasus because tlie Russians will be able to strike across the open country between Munich and Salsk to Rostov. The Red Armies in the Caucasus are so threatening the Germans with encirclement that correspondents envisage a race between the Russians and the Germans for the mouth of the sack which the Russians are trying to close and the Germans to keep open. Soviet forces thrusting down the Sta-lingrad-Krasnador railway reached Taklita, 50 miles south of Salsk. Another Russian column is closing in- on Armavir which the occupation oi Mikovanshakhar further menaces. A special Soviet communique announces the occupation of Salsk, an important town and railway station on the Stalingrad-Krasnodar railway about 100 miles south-east of Rostov. From Salsk runs a branch line to Rostov.— British Official Wireless.