SMOLENSK ROUT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 27 September 1943, Page 5

SMOLENSK ROUT

GREAT NAZI DEFEAT

Principal Enemy Base For Two Years

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright LONDON, Sept 26. The great German base of Smolensk has fallen to the Russians. The German High Command announced yesterday morning that Smolensk was evacuated on Friday night without enemy interference after the destruction of all important war installations. Moscow officially announced the capture of Smolensk 12 hours later. The city was the principal German base in Russia for two years, and was described by Marshal Stalin yesterday as "the most important strategical centre of the enemy's defence in the western direction." The occupation of Roslayl, 70 miles south-east of Smolensk, is also announced by the Russians and admitted by the Germans. . Enthusiastic crowds in the streets of Moscow celebrated the victory last night. As showers of rockets soared up into the sky a searchlight was suddenly switched on to the Lenin Museum and dozens of hats flung into the air could be seen in the beam of light. Victory guns thundered and chimes rang out from the Kremlin. The Russians say that in the German evacuation of Smolensk and Roslalv, the enemy did not have time to complete their plans, ihey left behind 60 aircraft, many guns and a large number of complete railway trains. Smolensk first fell to the Germans on August 15, 1941, only 55 days after the German invasion. Its capture then cost the lives of thousands of Hitler s best troops. The Germans constructed a vast and intricate defence system round Smolensk, which was then thought to be invulnerable. Roth Marshal Timoshenko and General Ghukov led the Russian armies back to the gates of the city in December. 1941, and February, 1942, the second advance being stopped only after the Germans had launched 30 counterattacks. Hitler made Smolensk his headquarters in the autumn of 1941, when he was planning what he believed would be the final assault against Jloscow.