GUNS WITHIN TWENTY MILES OF SMOLENSK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 225, 22 September 1943, Page 3

GUNS WITHIN TWENTY MILES OF SMOLENSK

ENCIRCLING MOVE Steady Relentless Soviet Advance N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 21. Guns thundered within 18 miles of Smolensk as the Russians softened up the defences and moved steadily and relentlessly against the German fortress. The column nearest the city is advancing along the main road from Kholm to the north. The column from the Kalinin front is outflanking Smolensk from the north and moving down the Dvina Valley towards Vitebsk, which is 100 miles to the west. The Germans are being forced back on all fronts.

More big German withdrawals in Russia, possibly as far as the Polish border, are indicated by the latest reports from Berlin published in the Swedish Press. The Dagbladet Berlin correspondent quotes authoritative Nazi circles for the statement that it would be a mistake to assume that the line the Germans are now taking up is to be the winter line. The present German aim is to form a buffer line, and it is too early yet to speak of a winter line. This statement, says the British United Press Stockholm correspondent, is all the more startling since the Nazis are already stressing the gigantic scale of the present shortening of the front, which is something far bigger than the previous smallscale withdrawals. Paris radio's commentator, Jean Paquis, says the German retreat in Russia opens the last chapter of the war. It will probably be the bloodiest, but Germany remains confident.