LONGER LINE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 31, 16 November 1943, Page 3

LONGER LINE

THE GERMANS FORCED BACK, EMPTY SPACES SUGGESTED. RUSSIANS STILL PROGRESS (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 15.

The line to which the Germans have been forced back from the Pripet to the mouth of Dnieper is reckoned to be about 3CQ miles longer than the Dnieper-Meiitopol Azov line, where they probably hoped to stabilise the situation. The consequence is they must be getting somewhat thin on the ground by now at some parts of the front. Indeed, the speed of the Russian progress west of Kiev suggests that the German front has been so broken that only the main centres and lines of communication are held, leaving empty spaces between.

The Russian “box” beyond Kiev has Swollen to a solid block territory stretching 90 miles west of the Dnieper and about the same distance north to south. —British Official Wireless. In the last 24 hours the Russians have been moving up for the assault on. Korosten, another main enemy base in the western Ukraine, nearly 100 miles north-west of Kiev. By last night Ruseian forces were within 15 miles of Korosten, and other forces of tanks, infantry, and cavalry were clearing the approaches to the town.

The Russian communique last night said: “Troops of the Ist Ukrainian Army have captured Chepovichi, on the Kiev-Warsaw railway, less than 20 miles south-east of Korosten, and more than 50 other places. The Red Army on the Kerch Peninsula, in the eastern Crimea, overcame coun-ter-attacks and captured two strongholds.”

“The Russians have opened their expected great new offensive in the Dnieper bend, between Zaporozhe and the area north-nortli-west of Krivoi Rog,” says the Berlin radio. “The Russians lifive brought up 30 divisions for the attack.” The Berlin radio adds that the Red Army has scored a number of local penetrations, for which it has had to pay dearly. Battles were still raging late last night.

A report by the Soviet Atrocity Commission says: “The Germans lit human bonfires before driven from the liberated areas of Russia. In one of these holocausts 270 old men, women, and children were burned alive in a barn at a village. in. Chernigov province.” The report adds that, the Germans deliberately starved to death tens of thousands of Russian prisoners, and that more than 50,000 civilians were killed by hunger, torture, and shooting in the Donets Basin.