NEW DRIVE IN NORTH

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24123, 6 December 1943, Page 5

NEW DRIVE IN NORTH

Multiple Blows By Red Army MOVEMENT SLOWS IN MUD (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5. Mogilev, central point of the German line in White Russia, is the target for a new thrust by the Red Army, which continues its advance along the whole front, in spite of what a correspondent has described as "a sea of kneedeep mud.” Red Army forces are now reported 25 miles from Mogilev. The Orsha sector, north of Mogilev, is described by the Germans as the principal battlefield of the front, but the. Russians have not supported this announcement. The mud is everywhere slowing the movements of the troops, but in the southern sector of the line in White Russia the Red Army forces are now only some eight miles from Zhlobin and Rogachev. The' force advancing on Zhlobin has taken the last main station on the line before the town. More successes are reported in the advance on Snamenka, in the bend of the Dnieper, and a new outbreak of fierce fighting is reported from the Kerch straits, where the Russians now seek to enlarge their bridgehead. A Moscow communique says that the Russians north-west of Propoisk occupied several inhabited localities. North-west of Gomel, they occupied 30 inhabited localities, including a railway centre eight miles south-east of Zhlobin. In the . Cherkasy area they repelled counter-attacks, and south-west of Kremenchug captured several strongpoints. A German High Command communique says that on the southern sector of the Russian front, major ope-

rations have developed only in the area south-west of Kremenchug. andnear Cherkasy, “The enemy made Small local infiltrations,” says the communique. “One Russian formation broke through, at one point and fierce battles are going on against major enemy formations supported by tanks. “The Russians west of Smolensk again launched fierce attacks on the fourth day of big defensive battles in dense snowdrifts.” r ‘ The Soviet communique on Thursday night said that the Red Army north-west of Gomel .was continuing the offensive and had fought its way forward, capturing more than 100 inhabited places, including Novsk, ■ 17 miles north-east of Rogachev. In the Cherkasy area the Russians had repelled tank and infantry counter-attacks. West and south-west of Kremenchug, the Red Army had captured Novogeorgievsk, 20 miles west of Kremenchug, and close to the west bank of the Dnieper. The progress made by the Russians east of the middle Dnieper means that what was formerly the Gomel salient has been almost straightened out. The central part of the front now runs more or less straight from east of Mogilev to north 6f Zhitomir, and from there goes roughly straight to the west of Kremenchug. South of this line the Russian advance to the neighbourhood of Snamenka has forced a German withdrawal between that junction and the Dnieper, but the Germans still hold nearly 50 miles of river line between there and the Russian bridgehead just above Cherkasy, Fierce battles have begun for widening the bridgehead on the Kerch peninsula, says the Moscow paper, “Red Star.” The Russians, after capturing Novogeorgievsk (20 miles west of Kremenchug), are continuing to drive onwards. The Germans had no time seriously to wreck Novogeorgievsk, says “Red Star.” They left much booty. The Paris radio has announced that, in Berlin, military officials say that the Orsha sector has now become the principal battlefield of the Russian

front. The Russians here, it is reported in Berlin, have thrown in a further eight divisions, so that at least 30 Soviet divisions are now battling against the German lines. There is a lull in the fighting in the Kiev front, owing to the bad weather. Both the Russian and the German armies are struggling in a sea of mud. The Moscow radio says that the Russians are advancing steadily westward north-west of Gomel, between the Dnieper and the Beresina, and between the Beresina and the Pripet. The radio also reports advances in the Dnieper bend south of Kremenchug. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the capture of NoVsk gives the Russians control of the main highway to Rogachev, He says that the Germans in this area are losing enormous numbers of men in fruitless rearguard battles. “The German bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnieper, defending Zhlobin and Rogachev, is collapsing under attacks from three sides.”

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