Important Gains In Jitomir Region

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 269, 12 November 1943, Page 3

Important Gains In Jitomir Region

DRIVE ON KEY RAILWAY Red Army Launches New Offensive In Gomel Area (N.Z.P.A.—Copyright.—Rec. 1 P . m .) LONDON, November 11. Big Russian gains in the drives from Kiev towards Jitomir and Berdichev are reported in the latest Moscow communique. German attempts to throw back the Soviet columns are unavailing and the Russians are developing a wide encircling movement which promises to be greater than any they have yet attempted. A large enemy force is in danger against the Pripet Marshes and another is trapped in the junction between the Pripet and Dnieper Rivers. The Red Army has begun a vigorous new offensive in the Gomel region. Berlin reports that the Russians are using powerful forces of tanks and infantry. Troops of the First Ukrainian Army have captured Radomysl* on the Teterev River, north-west of Jitomir, and Brustlov, district centres in the Jitomir region, in the direction of the old Polish border, besides over 100 inhabited places, according to the Soviet communique. The Russians have also captured the railway stations at Teterev and Chernyavka, north of Jitomir, which is on the main Russian railway from Leningrad to Odessa. Several strongly-fortified centres of resistance have been captured on the west bank of the Dnieper River, south of Ryechitsa.

Germans Sensitive to Encirclement Possibilities The Germans chiefly fear encirclement from the movement south of Kiev. They have been notoriously sensitive to encirclement since their defeat at Stalingrad. The Germans are faced' with a dilemma. If they begin to pull out of their prepared positions around Krivoi Rog and Nikopol there is the danger that Russian forces, waiting in great strength from Kremenchug to Dnepropetrovsk, will overwhelm them. Alternatively, the longer the Germans stay at the Dnieper bend the greater are the chances of General Vatutin closing his giant trap. The Red Army has thus far occupied half of Kiev Province. The Russian Air Force is now operating from aerodromes on the •west bank of the Dnieper and big Russian forces are still crossing the river from the east, above and below Kiev. The German News Agency commentator von Hammer admitted that the Red Army, throwing in ever-fresh units, succeeded in gaining several miles of the Kiev-Jitomir Road. The battles continue with undiminished violence, he said. A hard battle is going on in Kerch Straits, under tempestuous winds, driving rain and high seas, as the Russians' supply vessels run the German blockade and bring men and munitions to the Crimea bridgeheads, reports Reuters correspondent in Moscow. The Russians last week had critical moments when they were nearly pushed back to the sea, but they now have a firm grip of the peninsula.