THREE NEW ADVANCES ON KHARKOV FRONT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 197, 20 August 1943, Page 3

THREE NEW ADVANCES ON KHARKOV FRONT

RUSSIAN PROGRESS

Troops Six Or Eight Miles From City N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 19. The Russians have made important new advances in three directions on the Kharkov front. Reuters Moscow correspondent says they are now threatening the city from the south, where they are between six and eight miles away. Red Army columns which by-passed Kharkov from Byelgorod have advanced to Oposhnia, SO miles west of Kharkovand have reached a point only 24 miles north of Poltava. The Russians north-west of Kharkov, after a new push, stand seven miles south of Sumy. To-night's Soviet communique states that the Russians on the Bryansk front advanced and occupied 20 inhabited localities. On the Kharkov front the Russians advanced in some sectors from three to eight miles and occupied over 30 inhabited places. The newspaper Pravda says prisoners stated that the German command had ordered that Kharkov must be held to the very last. All lightly wounded have been told to remain in the ranks. Massive Assault on Kharkov , In their massive assault against Kharkov the Russians are apparently concentrating now on cutting off the city itself. Correspondents emphasise the importance of the capture of Smiyev, because it is only 20 miles south-east of Merefa where the last two remaining German escape railway lines south and south-west from Kharkov join into a single line.

The British United Press correspondent points out that if the Russians cut this single line anywhere between Kharkov and Merefa, both routes will be severed and the Kharkov garrison finally cut off. The newspaper Red Star asserts that the Russian advance from Chuguyev and the capture of Smiyev have compelled the Germans to clear a considerable stretch of the right bank of the northern Donetz, and adds that the German command ordered troops to hold Smiyev at least for another two or three days, but the Russians stormed and took the town. Two-day Battle for Smiyev Describing tne capture of Smiyev the British United Press correspondent says huge forces for two days fought for the town. The Russians took the railway station, then armoured spearheads smasiied the German line and broke into the town itself. The Russians followed up by capturing a village north of Smiyev, and also broke into the town from the northern suburbs. They split up into two groups and after all-night fighting, street t>y street, the German garrison was wiped out. The Germans counter-attacked with tanks and infantry against the Russian lines west of Kharkov, but the Russians held off these onslaughts .while their own main attack was directed against the enemy's Donetz lines. The collapse of the German Donetz positions lays the area south of Kharkov open for another and perhaps a final Russian drive to close the last roads from the city. A Berlin report states that yesterday the.Russians started a new offensive in the Staraya Russa sector. 120 miles south of Leningrad. They used 200 tanks and masses of artillery. It was at Staraya Russa that a big German army was trapped in the winter of 1942 and it was there that the Russian offensive was halted by the thaw in March of this year. Axis Counter-Attacks Repulsed Moscow radio says the Germans switched reinforcements from other sectors and launched new counterattacks in a bid to hold the Russian offensive between Smolensk and Bryansk. The Russians, after the fiercest, prolonged fighting in one sector south of Demensk, have gained favourable positions. Increased Russian attacks south of Eyeloi, also south-west and south of Viazma, are reported by Berlin radio, which claims that all broke down with heavy Russian losses. Brussels radio quoted Germar military sources for a report thai the Russians are continuing tc attack the Isyum area with undiminished vigour. "The Russians, hurl- ! ing tanks and infantry against the German lines, managed to break through at a few points, the announ- | cer said.