FORCED BACK

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 1, 12 October 1943, Page 5

FORCED BACK

GERMANS ON THE DNIEPER. RUSSIANS AT GATES OF GOMEL (N.Z. Press Association— LONDON, Oct. 11. The battle of the Dnieper crossings continues clay and night. The Germans are counter-attacking fiercely, trying to drive a wedge into the everwidening Russian bridgeheads. The battles are as savage as any fought in Russia, W the enemy is being gradually forced from the heights on the western side of the river. The Red Army is receiving a constant stream of reinforcements over the crossings, which' are being steadily improved. In several places the crossings are now out of range of German guns. In White Russia the Red Army made good progress yesterday, and the Russians are now beating at the gates of Gomel, the southern bastion of the White Russian line. They have reached points on the railway only five miles east of the town. The Germans are fighting hard to hold Gomel, but a broad wedge has been driven into their defences east and north-east of it. Russians spearheads are within 15 miles of Vitebsk. The Russians are heavily engaged at the outer approaches to the town, and are gradually forcing their way through deep belts of fortifications. Big air battles are being fought over this sector. In the Nevel sector, 60 miles north of Vitebsk, the Russians yesterday advanced again, and forced the Germans to bring up reserves of infantry, tanks, and self-propelled guns.

Germans’ Desperate Struggle

Last night’s Soviet communique said: “The Red Army on the middle Dnieper, repelling counter-attacks, has continued to enlarge its bridgeheads on the west bank. “The Russians in the Vitebsk sector advanced from four to seven miles and captured more than 140 inhabited places, including Yanovichi, 23 miles north-east of Vitebsk, and the rail station of Krasnoe, 27 miles east-south-east of Orsha. They captured Rudnya (on the Smolensk-Vitebsk railway), and the rail station of Larishchevo.

“The Russians in the Gomel sector, after breaking enemy resistance, occupied Dobruzh, 10 miles east of Gomel on the Gomel-Bryansk railway. “Over 40 places were occupied in the Nevel sector.”

Speaking of the fighting across the Dnieper, north of Kiev, a, correspondent in Moscow says: “This is one of the greatest and bloodiest battles of the war. The Germans, realising the danger to all their forces in the south it Kiev falls, are making desperate efforts to throw the Soviet troops back into the river. Engineers and other technical troops have been - thrown into the battle to take the place of those battered in the rear areas. It is clear that the Dnieper line has been broken, and the Germans are powerless .to undo that which has been done.”

Red Army troops, tanks, guns, and supplies are streaming across the Dnieper and consolidating the Russians’ bridgeheads on the west bank. According to the Moscow radio, eight divisions, with full artillery and equipment, have crossed the Dnieper. Reuter reports that the Germans are counter-attacking ferociously, but so far ineffectively. The Russians are storming the hilltop villages on the west bank with tanks and guns and finishing off the enemy with shattering bayonet charges. Extent of Offensive. The Red Army’s correlated operations over the whole front from Nevel to Melitopol have reached the greatest magnitude since the outbreak of the Russian-German war. With the outcome, of the vital battle in the Nevel sector trembling in the balance, the Red Army is also threatening to outflank Vitebsk, Kiev, and Dnepropetrovsk from the rear and is renewing its attacks against Zaporozhe and Melipotol to complete the cutting off of the Germans in the Crimea. The tremendous underlying significance of the Russians’ main thrust is the potential threat to outflank three German strongpoints from the rear. The Russian advance from Nevel is aimed at cutting off Vitebsk. The development of the bridgehead north of Kiev is menacing Kiev itself, and the extension of the bridgehead southeast of Kremenehug may surround Dnepropetrovsk. The Official German News Agency says that the German lines on the north-eastern flank of Nevel have been turned back in the face of superior enemy pressure. The Berlin correspondent of a Stockholm newspaper says that the outcome of the fighting iri the Nevel sector may decide the fate of the German front in northern Russia. “Much is at stake at Nevel,” he says. “The Russians ax*e aiming at a break through to Riga Bay.” North of Crimea. Now that the Germans have laboriously transferred thousands of troops from the Kuban to the Crimea, the Red Army is again making an effort finally to seal off the Germans in the Crimea. The Official German News Agency says that the Russians from north of Melitopol to the Sea of Azov have launched an expected new attack, axid fluctuating battles are going on. German and Rumanian troops were caught in what the Red Army called the Kuban rat-trap in the final hours of the liberation of the Taman peninsula. German prisoners said that many of their companions went mad under the weight of the Russian barrages. Prisoners also related how their

officers, deluded them by asserting that a solid motor road had been built across the Kerch Strait, and that powerful German tank units were waiting to smash the attacking Russians.

The Germans heavily mined the entire Taman peninsula. The latest refinements in mining technique included bombs in pianos, which 1 exploded when played, and hand-grenades wired on to coat-hangers. The Russians found hundreds of German and Rumanian corpses huddled in the streets of the port of Taman.