ESCAPE PORT OF YALTA IS CAPTURED BY RUSSIANS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13429, 17 April 1944, Page 3

ESCAPE PORT OF YALTA IS CAPTURED BY RUSSIANS

-ttt DRAWING TIGHTER ROUND NAVAL N BASE OF SEBASTOPOL

London. April 16. • u+'o news from the Crimea is that the Russians have Tn ill' I ''' s i !l ' i Valtfl the German strongpomt and evacuation port on captured i <*"•*> * e T th order from Marshal Stalin says that it has fallen to 1 Yeremenko's forces at the end of another 16 miles push G«f ra rocky coastline. They have now traversed 160 miles along' Y Kei ...| l a wee k ago and have won another salute f ce i 9 sa lvoes from Moscow guns to-night. ■ T neace time Yalta was the principal spa and holiday resort , Crimea and a convalescent centre protected on three sides fli tiie tai)lS Jts loss to the Germans and Rumanians now is by loss of another harbour—the last, with, the exception ?S a «stopol by which they might have hoped to escape. qebastopol itself, a naval base of vastly greater importance, • > closely threatened by General Tolbukhin's forces from l lot) Last night they were only four miles away in one direc--1 six in another. Thev have taken the main airfield outside JfjJJ and are in control of pretty well every .road in to the port. e it took the Germans eight months to capture Sebastopol m 1942 1 its defences would still be formidable in the hands of resolute But Russian correspondents do not believe the Red Army "vi take eHit months or eight weeks or eight days to get it back v and so complete their victories of their whirlwind campaign intl To (lav's 3 communique from Hitler's headquarters says that in the south-western part of the Crimea, the Russians following up the German and Rumanian forces, have been brought to a halt in hard fighting. . .