GERMANS UNABLE TO STEM RUSSIAN FLOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 152, 29 June 1944, Page 5

GERMANS UNABLE TO STEM RUSSIAN FLOOD.

OH "ROUTE TO BERWT Defeat May Become Enemy Disaster X.Z. Press Association—Copvright Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, June 28.! The German defeat in Whitej Russia has assumed the proportions j or a disaster of the first magnitude.! declares The Times correspondent in ! Moscow. Red Army forces at several points have advanced westward to : the extent of 60 or SO miles and snattered the Yitebsk-Orsha-Mohilev- ; Jiooin line. Front line dispatches to-day re-1 ported great columns of Russian i reinforcements and supplies pouring I through wide gaps in the former j German line, pushing westward as fast as the heavy terrain would permit with the German forces, which were able to extricate themselves, falling back in disorder. There is little doubt that the! Allied offensive in Normandy is I making itself felt on the White~Rus- j sian front, where the Germans have been unable to bring up reinforcements or provide anything resembling adequate air support. The Germans, although resisting strongly, are unable at any point to j stem the Russian flood. The enemy j no longer presents any semblance j of a line or co-ordinated action. Front line dispatches appear to show) that the German defeats have been! so overwhelming that each enemy j commander is fighting on his own j responsibility, trying to save his unit. Observers in Moscow are of the opinion that the Russian Command is determined to obtain a very quick decision on the White Russian front because, as one writer puts it, "White Russia is the shortest route to Berlin." Taking people Into Confidence Germany has no reserves for the Russian front and the generals there j must manage during the summer | months with the troops available on! the spot, says the Volkischer Beo- j bachter the" official organ of the: Nazi party, and other German news- j papers quoted by The Times corres-: pondent in Stockholm. Authoritative German spokesmen, j 1 the correspondent adds, say that the j German Supreme Command has j decided to take the German people j into its confidence about the serious period ahead with the armed forces; fighting on three active fronts so j that the people will not be dismayed > when they see the German armies retreating from the east. The German news agency commentator, Hallensleben, stated: "The strength of powerful German reinforcements will soon be felt on the 1 Karelian Isthmus. The loss ofi] territory there is only temporary, j 1 The Germans will never leave their, i brothers-in-arms in the lurch." j: Hundreds of Places Captured . j To-night's Soviet communique states: "The Russians south of Polotsk, piercing the enemy fortifi-. cations, captured Lepel and over 100 , inhabited places. The Red Army, in the Minsk sector, captured the district centres of "V igunichi and | Krugloe, and fought its way into [ another -100 places." x ~ J ( The communique repeats tne j t Order of the Day on the capture of j £ Mohilev, and adds that over 400 other places were also captured. "During the fighting for Mohilev I it states, "the German Twelfth Infa"; - try Division was wiped out and its \ commanding officer, I Wagner, taken prisoner. The garrison commander at Mohilev, 1 General Hermansdorf, was also cap- . tured." * . The communique repeats the c Order of the Day on the capture of t Osipovichi, and adds that o\ ei -00 i

i. inhabited places were also captured The battles for the annihilation oi tne enemy group, which is sur rounded in the Bobruisk area, were continued. The troops on this fronl liberated over 200 places, including two district centres and the railway station of Beresina. "The Russians, between Lakes Onega and Ladoga, on the northern front," the communique adds, "advanced 21 miles. South-west of Viipuri we cleared the enemy from Kuransaar Island, in the Gulf of Finland, and thereby occupied the town, fort and railway station of Tronsundpura." NEW RUSSIAN ATTACK BALTIC FRONT ACTIVITY Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, June2S. Berlin radio has announced that the Russians launched a new attack with four or five divisions between Ostrov and Pskov, on the Baltic front, on a line under two miles wide. According to Paris radio SO Russian divisions are now attacking the German line on the Eastern