NEW GREAT SOVIET OFFENSIVE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13333, 21 December 1943, Page 5

NEW GREAT SOVIET OFFENSIVE

BIG GAP TORN IN ENEMY DEFENCES THREAT TO NAZI FORCES IN THE NORTH Red Army Less Than Sixty Miles From Latvia Reported Evacuation of Kherson Bondou, Dec. 20. The Russian winter offensive on the first Baltic front is making progress ami the latest reports put Red Army advance troops les l than 00 miles from the border of Batvia. Strong Soviet tank units, supported by, cavalry and ski troops, have thriven deeper into the 50-milo breach that has been smashed in, the German defence system. Another Red Army force is already farther west of the big German fortress of Vitebsk and threatens to cut off the German garrison

I’vom the rear. ' A third Soviet column is closing in rapidly on the important rail centre of Polotsk, 60 miles west of Vitebsk, through which runs; the main supply line feeding the Leningrad front.

It is already clear that the successes gained by the Red Army in the first six days of their winter offensive are likely to have a profound effect on the whole winter campaign.

The vast breach driven into the enemy’s defences not only threatens to roll up the entire Leningrad line, where the Germans have been established for two years, but also endangers the supply system of the German forces farther south on the Kiev front.

In a despatch from Moscow one correspondent points out that the early 'successes gained in this offensive are all the more remarkable because there was no chance of an encircling movement. The Russians had to launch a frontal attack against one of the strongest defence systems along the whole front. 1 . The correspondent says these defences were terrific. German engineers had taken the fullest advantage of the many natural features and had built, what they believed to be, an ircn wall behind! which they had hoped to spend thewinter. The complicated system of fortifications stretched back for miles and it took the Russians the best part of a week of bitter fighting to break through. The defences-, were eventually overwhelmed by a terrific- Soviet bombardment and the pluck of the Red Army soldiers. The Soviet troops, which included some Siberian units, pushed forward 1 day after day through the bogs, hauling their guns through the mud 1 and carrying their own food and 1 shells on their backs. Each day they beat off anything from 10 to 15 strong counter-attacks. An earlier report of this new offensive stated that one of the 500 places liberated in the first five days was the district centre of Ezerische, 25 miles south of Nevel. The Russians have also gained a success right down in the south, according to enemy reports. The German radio announced to-day that their troops had. evacuated the Dnieper bridgehead at Khferson. The evacuation has not yet been confirmed by Moscow although it has been apparent for some time that the German position across the river opposite Kherson could not be held much longer.