RUSSIANS TAKE BYELGOROD

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24020, 7 August 1943, Page 5

RUSSIANS TAKE BYELGOROD

Orel Cleared Of Enemy Pursuit to west CONTINUES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, August 6. Soviet troops yesterday completed the occupation of Orel and captured Byelgorod, 160 miles to the south, thus wresting from the Germans the bases from which they launched their abortive offensive against the Kursk salient a month ago. These Soviet victories were announced last night by Mr Stalin. Reports from Moscow this morning indicate that the Germans are still falling back west of Orel with Soviet forces hard on their heels. The roads along which the Germans are retreating are littered with guns, tanks, and bodies. North-west of Orel the Germans have been resisting stubbornly, but they are being pushed back into the narrowing escape gap. The Moscow radio, describing the capture of Byelgorod, said this morning that Soviet gunners put up a devastating barrage while infantry massed for the final assault. Under the cover of Russian aeroplanes, which had complete mastery of the air, the infantry burst into the city on the heels of the enemy. There was fierce fighting in the streets, but it did not last long. The capture of Byelgorod threatens the German position at Kharkov, 45 miles to the south, which controls road and rail communications to the southern front.

Mr Stalin, in an order of the day, laid: ‘‘On August 5 troops of the Bryansk front, supported from the flanks by troops of the western and central fronts, as a result of fierce fighting, occupied Orel. Furthermore, to-day troops of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts broke the enemy’s resistance and occupied Byelgorod. A month ago, on July 5, the Germans launched a super offensive from Orel and Byelgorod, aiming to wipe out the Soviet troops in the Kursk bulge and occupy Kursk. Repelling all enemy attacks, our troops went over to a counter-offensive, and just a month after the beginning of the German offensive they occupied Orel and Byelftjrod. Thus the German myth that the Soviet troops are unable to carry out a summer offensive has been destroyed.” ■; _ . . Mr Stalin announced that the Soviet divisions responsible for the victories would in future be known as the.Orel and Byelgorod Divisions. He added: "To-day, at midnight, the capital of Moscow will salute the valiant troops who liberated Orel and Byelgorod by 12 artillery salvoes fired from 120 guns. “I offer my thanks to all the troops who took part in this operation. Eternal glory to all men who fell in the fight. Death to the German invaders!” , 30 Places Retaken After Mr Stalin had announced these successes, the Moscow communique reported the recapture of 30 more places north-west, south, and south-west of Orel. An earlier communique reported that much booty was captured round /rSI, including in one sector 11,000 %*ffrslls, 2,000,000 rounds of small arms mnmimition. and more than 100 machine-guns. Byelgorod has been in Gorman hands since its capture in the enemy counterattacks last spring, which culminated in the capture of Kharkov. The town is 50 miles north-east of Kharkov, on the right bank of the Donets river, and is an important link in rail communication between Moscow and ' the south. It is a good jumping-off point for an attack on Kharkov and an advance into the Ukraine. The entire German defence system round the Orel bulge is crumbling swiftly following the fall of Orel itself, according to a Russian military spokesman. “Pravda” says that thousands of German dead and mountains of scrap iron litter the battlefield in the wake of the Germans. New Drive Reported The ‘‘Daily Express” correspondent In Moscow says that the Russians have launched a new drive threatening Bryansk, the Germans’ next hedgehog city. The Germans attempting to slow up the Russians west of Orel are keeping up a ceaseless artillery barrage. The Moscow correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the fleeing German garrison alms to escape from Orel with as many men as possible to the temporary shelter of Bryansk, and the Russians are sweeping from the north and south trying to cut them off and close the pincers at Karachev, 25 miles east of Bryansk. The fate of 150,000 to 200.000 Germans, he adds, is being decided in the forests along the tracks west of Orel. The Russians •re certain to gain enormous booty •nd masses of artillery and tanks. Fierce street fighting marked the final capture of Orel, according to a supplementary communique issued from Moscow giving details of the capture of Orel and Byelgorod. • In Orel, said the communique, the Germans had built immense fortifications and heavily mined the city. Automatic riflemen had been posted ' in buildings and on the rooftops and they

pul up a stiff resistance before they were overwhelmed by the Red Army and eventually cleared out. The Germans were being driven from the whole of the Orel area, Orel itself being completely liberated. The Russians say that in the final struggle for Byelgorod 3000 German officers and men were killed. “The Russians fought their way into Orel street by street,” says the British United Pre& correspondent in Moscow. "The city was a mass of flames, and piles of wreckage and debris from blazing buildings lay in the streets. The Germans began smashing up the city and blowing up factories and public buildings a week ago. They left the city a wreck as terrible as Stalingrad, Rzhev, and Voronezh." Smolensk Exposed Commentators in London say that the fall of Orel will affect the cohesion of the whole enemy front and expose Smolensk to a grave flanking danger. The military writer of the “Evening Standard" says: "The capture of Orel is the first great success for the Red Army’s offensive power. All the previous Soviet successes followed Red Army counter-offensives which exploited the exhaustion of the Nazi attack. This deliberate offensive was mounted after months of preparation, and was carried out in spite of FieldMarshal von Kluge’s spoiling attack.” “Orel is at once a grave blow to the Germans and an even greater threat to them in future," says the "Daily Mail.” "Orel is certainly the greatest Russian victory of the war. The psychological effects will be terrific, because the German people have been taught to regard Orel as a symbol of their military strength, and the strategical effects will be felt on every sector of the Russian front,” The Berlin correspondent of the Swiss “National Zeitung” reports that German military circles are constantly asking where the Russian supplies of fresh men and material come from. TWO WARSHIPS HIT U.S. SUBMARINE ATTACKS JAPANESE PEARL HARBOUR, Aug. 5. Commander John Scott, of the United States Navy, when patrolling in the Pacific recently unwittingly surfaced his submarine at night in the midst of Japanese warships near Japanese mandated islands. Commander Scott fired several torpedoes and hit two warships, which were listed as’ damaged and probably sunk. He made off as the escorting destroyers dropped depth charges. Commander Scott is credited with sinking two freighters and one tanker, as well as damaging these warships on patrol. He has been awarded the Navy Cross. RATIONING AFTER THE WAR LONDON. Aug. 5. The extension of coupon rationing for four or five years after victory was forecast by the Minister of Labour (Mr Ernest Bevin) in a speech in Edinburgh. He said that unless rationing control continued the “grab-alls’ would obtain all the newly-made goods, force up prices, and drive the country towards inflation. “Everyone will be anxious to throw off control," said Mr Bevin, “but four or five years of national post-war discipline will help us to build the right peace. Among other tremendous domestic problems which will confront Britain after the war is housing. There : have been nearly two million marriages in Britain since the outbreak of war. Most of these young people will be unable to set up a home, and we 1 will have to provide facilities for ; these homes to be built as quickly as j possible if we are to avoid a major 1 moral disaster.” i