OCHAKOV TAKEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 147, 1 April 1944, Page 3

OCHAKOV TAKEN

IMPORTANT NAZI STRONGHOLD. | STALIN’S ORDER OF THE DAY* ) OTHER SOVIET SUCCESSES. j | (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright.) (Rec. 1.50 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 31. The occupation of Ochakov is announced in an order of the day by Marshal Stalin to General Malinovsky The order states that troops of the 3rd Ukrainian front, developing their offensive, occupied the fortress 'and town of Ochakov, an important stronghold of German resistance —the gateway to the mouths of the Dnieper and Bug Rivers. —British Oflicial Wireless. ' The Soviet communique on Thursday niglit stated: “Troops of the Ist Ukrainian front captured several district centres in the region, including Delatyn, 39 miles south-west of Stanislawow, 15 miles from the Hungarian border and IS miles from the Tartar Pass on the highway from Lwow to Hungary across the Carpathians. The Russians also captured the district centre in the Cernauti region of Storojiuet. 15 miles south-west of Cernauti, besides more than 100 other places.” “The Red Army west of Mogilev Podolsk captured the town and large railway station of Lipkanu, which is a district centre in the Moldavian Soviet Republic, besides several other places. “The Russians south and east, of Balti captured more than 50 places, including Todoreshty, 14 miles northeast of lasy, and the railway station of Koblynya, 15 miles west-north-west of Ribnitsa. “Troops of the second Ukrainian front as a Result of stubborn fighting, captured Drybnitsa, on the east bank of the Dniester. The Red Army, southwest of Pei’vomaisk, captured 60 places and cleared the' enemy completely from the railway line running through Pervomaisk, Slobodzeya, Rib' nitsa and Balti. “The Russians, pursuing the enemy, captured 150 places in the Odessa region, including Vaterlo, 59 miles north-north-east of Odessa. The Russians in the area of Nikolaev forced the Bug river and Bug Liman (Bug Bay) and captured more than 60 places west of Nikolaev, including the district centre of Varvarovka.” “The key moves of the Russian-Ger-man war are being made,” says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. An important Capture. The Soviet paper “Red Star” says: “The importance of the capture of Kolomea is difficult to over-estimate. Kolomea is one of the most important centres of the whole area beyond the Dniester. Marshal Zhukov is striking for the Tartar gap in the Carpathians. The road to the gap starts climbing up from Kolomea and here the Red Army threatens to penetrate the mountain barrier that Hitler hopes will guard his inner fortress. The whole drive ill this little corner of the Balkans is fraught with enormous consequences. Marshal Zhukov is astride Hitler’s last vital communication lines east of the Carpathians by swamping Kolomea and Cernauti. Marshal Zhukov not only points the way to where the Russians may burst into the Balkans hut has cut the Axis armies east, of the Balkans* into two.

“The German units in Bessarabia must turn south to escape to Germany because all their positions in that area are disintegrating. The Germans north of Cernauti are being pressed back toward Stanislawow and Lwow.

“The German position in the Odessa region in the last 24 hours has seriously deteriorated. Marshal Koniev’s forces have occupied points 12 miles above Traspol on the lasy line, one of the two last railway retreat lines the Germans have from the south. ’ The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says that probably the most important news from the Odessa region is that the steppes east and north of Odessa are drying. This, he says, will igreatly alleviate the transport and supply problems of the Red Army. A correspondent of the British United Press in Stockholm says that a German High Command spokesman, at a press conference in Berlin, admitted that the German line in Russia ran west of Kowel, Tarnopol, and Biody, and that further extensive withdrawals on the eastern front were likely. A. commentator of the German Overseas News Agency admitted that the southern part of The German front in Russia was being cut into separate pieces. “The front is loosening,” he said, “into a number of independent lighting groups.”