KURSK-ROSTOV DRIVE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 31, 6 February 1943, Page 5

KURSK-ROSTOV DRIVE

Nazis' Way Of Escape From Caucasus Lessens N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 5. Despite stiffer German resistance the Russian Army's twin offensives against the Kharkov-Kursk line and against the remnants of the German strongholds in the Caucasus are still mounting in fury. The Germans rushed up reinforcements from deep in the Ukraine in support of the defenders of their centre, but General Vatoutin's advance is still gaining momentum, while General Yeremenko's troops are storming Bataisk. A Moscow dispatch states that the gap through which the Germans are able to escape from the Caucasus to Rostov is now reduced to 15 miles. General Golikov is still driving on speedily, exploiting the capture of Tim and Shigry for loosening the "hinge" of the German central and southern defensive systems at Kursk. Three powerful Russian columns are bearing down on Kursk; the most northerly is advancing along the Orel-Kursk railway about 20 miles from the city, as flanking support for thrusts from the west. The occupation of Tim is most important because it controls five roads radiating to Shigry and Kursk, the Kursk-Knarkov railway and the Valuiki-Kastornaie railway, giving the Russians key strategic positions against Kursk, upon which the German defences have been driven. This advance may also act as a lever for the reduction of Kharkov. Kharkov Front Broadened Simultaneously General Vatoutin's forces have broadened the front against Kharkov by the capture of Dvyryechnaya and Borovaya, by which they tore up one of the strongest German defence lines along the east bank of the Oskol River. Here both sides mustered all arms for battle, but the Russian gunners devastatingly smashed the fortifications and the infantry clinched the assault with the bayonet. Reuters' Moscow correspondent reports that German corpses litter all roads from Voronezh westwards. The Red Army is tightening the ring around the trapped German forces, which, according to captured German officers, are facing acute shortage of food and munitions. One force trapped west of Voronezh was completely annihilated in a large inhabited locally southeast of Semlyan-Kastornoie. Nazis Have One Railway The Germans, after the Russian capture of Minskaya, possess only one railway, namely, from Krasnodar to Akhtari, for communications to the Sea of Azov from West Caucasus. The Times Stockholm correspondent says the main Russian offensive at present is largely aimed toward the Sea of Azov. Unless the Germans are able to counteract with larger and stronger forces than hitherto, the chances of an orderly evacuation appear to be meagre. If they do not halt the Russians, he adds, they will repeat the Stalingrad disaster. Such a Russian move was foreshadowed for weeks, and it is remarkable that the Germans have been unable to prevent the deep penetration already achieved. This apparently was not due exclusively to the German Command's confusion and futility, but to inability to adequately reinforce the troops, and a break-down in the transport system, which created a local scarcity of fuel. The scale of the Russian advances on several widely separated sectors recently is probably due to the influx of reinforcements of men and material. The Germans significantly report that Russians from Stalingrad are operating between Voronezh and Kursk, where the Russians are liquidating the divisions and smaller units which they by-passed when their jaws bit into the Kursk-Orel sector. The Germans are fighting fiercely and have sometimes mustered many tanks, which are not only outnumbered but inferior to the Russians'. . The Russians in one tank battle knocked out 54 of 60 German tanks. The Russians captured an aerodrome with 12 aircraft, tons of fuel and sufficient bombs to supply two Soviet squadrons for a year. To-night's special Moscow communique announces the capture of the town and railway station of Stary-Oskol, south-west of Voronezh, where the encircled garrison was either wiped out or made prisoners. In the Ukraine the Russians have captured the town and railway station of Isyum. The Berlin radio states that 47,000 wounded and sick German soldiers have been evacuated by air from the Stalingrad area.