DRAMATIC NEWS FROM RUSSIA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1944, Page 5

DRAMATIC NEWS FROM RUSSIA

(N.Z.P.-A.—Copyright.—Rec. 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, March 6,

Dramatic news arrived from Russia to-night to the effect that the Lwow-Odessa railway had been cut by the capture of Volochysk railway station, on the line itself, midway between Tarnopol and Proskurov. This news, says the British United Press, virtually seals the fate of German divisions still resisting in the Lower Dnieper.

The Russians in the near future are likely to be astride the railway on a broad front, making any German comeback extremely unlikely. The cutting of the Lwow-Odessa line will force the whole German communications in Southern Russia and Bessarabia to poor secondary lines, some of which are only single track lying beneath the Rumanian border Carpathians. These lines were not designed for strategic defence or attack.

The new Russian advance jeopardises nearly two-thirds of the whole forces at von Mannstein's disposal to guard the approaches to the Rumanian oilfields and hold Lwow, which is a vital bastion of the Bug River.

Reuters point out that it has taken Marshal Zhukov onlythree days to force von Mannstein back 50 miles in order to reach and cut the vital Lwow-Odessa railway.

Reuters Moscow correspondent says that one of the biggest supply problems of the war confronted Marshal Zhukov, who had to bring every man, shell, bullet and tank across the Dnieper. Soviet sappers for weeks have been knocking up new bridges to supplement those thrown across the river at the first Russian crossings last autumn.