RUSSIAN ADVANCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 89, 25 January 1943, Page 3

RUSSIAN ADVANCE

LOST GROUND ALSO RECOVERED SUPERIORITY IN THE AIR. GERMAN ALLIES BADLY MAULED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright). (Rec. 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 24. The Russians in two places are' now only about 50 miles from the line wlience the last German offensive began on the southern half of the front. One of these areas is between Voronezh and Kharkov, where .the. Russians are about 50 miles from the German starting-point near Bielgorod. The other is the lower Donets, near Voroshilovgrad. Between Voronezh and Rostov the. Russians are nowhere more than about 100 miles from the line they held last spring. South of Rostov a large area of the Germans gains in 1942 remain to them t in the Kuban district, but it is rapidly shrinking and their chances of any Caucasian territory are slender. Commenting >on this the “Observer” says that the statement by Mr H. L Stimson (United States Secretary for War) that Russia now has superiority in the air over the whole front, goes a long way to explain the decisive turn of the tide. It is, moreover, one aspect of the Russian victories to which British and Americans contributed Six thousand planes, produced for Russia in British and American factories and delivered by the valour of British, American ancf Russian sailors, contributed as much -to this Russian air superiority as the destruction brought on the Luftwaffe in Tunis, Libya and elsewhere.

Nearly all the Germans’ satellite divisions fighting in Russia are now accounted for, it was stated in London to-day. All the Italian and Hungarian troops have been so heavily defeated in recent weeks that their effective fighting strength must have become negligible, while of the original 20 Rumanian divisions all but four are known to have been badly mauled. Capitulations en masse by Italian, Rumanian and Hungarian troops have been frequent, sometimes with generals and staffs.

An agency correspondent says that during a recent visit to the Stalingrad front he learned that on the previous day the commander tof a Rumanian unit crossed the front line in a car to surrender. The Russians, however, turned him hack with a request that he bring his men and equipment, which he did.—British Official Wireless.