CUTTING RETREAT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 246, 28 July 1943, Page 3

CUTTING RETREAT

RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON OREL. TANKS AND PLANES SUFFER. ASSAULT ON TOWN EXPECTED. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, July 27. A Russian communique states: “Troops advanced from two and a half to four miles in the Orel area, and occupied over 50 localities. In the direction of Byelgorod the Russians improved their positions, also on the Leningrad front, and there was intensified reconnaissance activity on the Donets Basin. “Yesterday on all fronts the Russians destroyed or disabled 90 tanks.. “In air fights and by anti-aircraft fire 44 German planes were shot down.” —British Official Wireless, It was fully expected in Moscow that the Russians would cut the Germans' last route of retreat from Orel* tonight says the British United Press correspondent at Moscow. The sole remaining passage left to the Germans is a narrow dirt road from Orel through Fatezh to Kursk, and Russian -spearheads are expected to reach the road at a point 40 miles south-west of Orel. The correspondent adds that there is another “Stalingrad” in the offing for 250,000 Germans at Orel. With the Russians consolidating a strong bridgehead along the west bank of the Oka river, which runs nortli-east from Orel, and with the Russian forces rushing up from the south the Red Army is hourly expected to begin the assault against Orel itself.