Entire Defence System Disrupted

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 62, 14 March 1944, Page 5

Entire Defence System Disrupted

NAZIS IN UKRAINE Capture Of Vital Dnieper Mouth Port Latest Blow

(N.Z.P.A Copyright.—Rec. noon.) LONDON, March 1 3. The whole German Ukraine front is tottering under the blows from four Russian armies which have already cut many essential lines of retreat. The Russians to-day captured the important port and railway junction of Kherson.

Marshal Stalin, in an Order of the Day addressed to General Malinovsky, says: "The forces of the Third Ukrainian Front, having forced the Dnieper, captured Berislavl and developed their offensive to-day, and after fierce street fighting have stormed Kherson, the powerful German base of resistance." Marshal Koniev's army is now making an assault on the railway system linking the German southern army with Rumania, says Reuters Moscow correspondent. The Germans, though in mortal danger, cannot disengage as the Russians are forcing them to defend themselves against uninterrupted attacks all the way to the mouth of the Dnieper. The thrust to the Bug River threatens to cut off 20 to 30 German divisions still fighting between Kirovograd and Nikolayev. Russian Cavalry Splashing Through Mud

The British United Press Moscow correspondent says that advanced Russian cavalry is splashing through mud, finding the entire enemy defence system disrupted. Small enemy units are not trying to make a stand. Russian columns are steadily moving down the banks of the Lower Dnieper and Bug, preventing the Germans using the Bug as a new defence line and preventing major bodies of Germans escaping across the river to the west.

German confusion is increasing under the threat of another major encirclement. A correspondent, quoting the latest reports from the front, says the word panic is applicable to the present retreat in which the enemy is abandoning even light equipment and rifles in the rush backwards.

The defence of Nikolayev and other important Black Sea towns, on which the Germans hinged their Ukraine positions, may now be impossible owing to the disruption of the German front. The correspondent adds that to the north a great street battle continues in Tarnopol, where the Germans are making their one determined effort to stand and fight. They are hanging on to the western part of the town, supported by concentrations of guns and mortars on the hills outside the town. Although the town is ideal for defence, the Russians are steadily pushing the defenders out.