RUSSIANS MAKE GAINS WEST OF RJEV

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 54, 5 March 1943, Page 3

RUSSIANS MAKE GAINS WEST OF RJEV

RAIL TOWNS TAKEN

Hitler Deploys 70 Divisions On Moscow Front v N.Z.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 4. The Russians have made fresh gains west of Rjev. To-night's special Moscow communique announces the capture of Olenino, also Chertovino, which is between the Olenino and Rjev railway line. The enemy has been cleared out over the length of the railway from Moscow through to Rjev and to Velikiye Luki. In the Orel region the Russians occupied Sevsk, and also captured the railway town of Sundzha, about 50 miles south-west of Kursk. Reuters Moscow,.,, correspondent says Hitler is estimated to have deployed more than 70 divisions on the Moscow front salient, now threatened by the fall of Rjev. These forces protect the north-eastern approaches to Smolensk. The whole area of the salient is saturated to the limit with fortifications, of the most modern type. The German military spokesman stated that the Russians on the wings of the Orel semi-circle launched attacks with numerically, far superior assault and tank forces, engaging the Germans in heavy defensive battles. . The Russians achieved local breaches. Hitler's Front Cracking Hitler's eastern front is bending and cracking from Staraya • Russa, south of Lake'llmen, to Orel, in the south of Moscow, as the Red Army drives on after new successes on the Moscow front, says Reuters Moscow correspondent. The Russians are scoring more and more successes as they drive the enemy westward, reports the Moscow radio. They are preventing the Germans from consolidating the positions, storming their centres of resistance and capturing enormous booty. The Red Army has already liberated 15 districts in the Kharkov region. Reuters correspondent says that the Red Army's spirit and striking power in the fourth month of its great offensive are as high as ever. Vichy radio has announced that Marshal Timoshenko is massing big forces from Orel to Staraya Russa. Heavy Donetz Front Fighting Heavy fighting has been taking place on the Donetz front since the Germans began counter attacking a week ago. The enemy were, evidently obliged to make a great effort to stop the Russian progress, which is dangerously swift toward the Dnieper bend and across the neck of the Donetz Basin.

There is no confirmation of the enemy's repeated statement giving the Izyum"area as the scene of fighting in the Donetz, neither is there any confirmation of the enemy's claims to have recaptured Lozovaya, Barvenkovo, Kramatorskaya and Slaviansk. The enemy claims to be along the Donetz River are not convincing, as their troops have "never left its neighbourhood in certain areas.