DRIVE INTO POLAND

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24150, 8 January 1944, Page 5

DRIVE INTO POLAND

Red Army Attack Develops NEW OFFENSIVE REPORTED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Bee. 11.5 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 7. Russian forces arc now well over the 1939 border of Poland. West of Korosten they arc pressing on towards Sarny, and are now less than 30 miles from that important rail junction. A big drive seems to be in progress south-west of Berdichev. South of the line between Berdichev and Belaya Tserkov, General Vatutin’s forces are pushing behind Vinnitsa and cutting through between von Mannstein’s forces in that area and in the bend of the Dnieper. Yesterday the Russians advanced 10 miles in this sector. Vinnitsa is being steadily outflanked, and German sources report massive assaults against von Mannstein’s forces in the high ground below Berdichev. The Germans have reported a new Russian offensive inside the Dnieper bend. They say that Soviet forces have started a major offensive against Kirovograd and Krivoi Rog, and that the greatest tank battles of the winter are raging in that area. There is nothing from Moscow to confirm these statements, but a renewal of the Russian offensive in that area would not be unexpected. A new Russian offensive at the northern end of the Dnieper bend is reported by Axis-controlled radio stations. The Vichy radio says that the new Russian offensive, expected in the Cherkasy region, has been unleashed in the Kirovograd and Krivoi Rog sectors. It is obviously aimed, says the radio, at forcing the Germans to evacuate the great Dnieper bend. The radio broadcast a late dispatch from Berlin claiming that the greatest tank battle of the whole war had just concluded north of Krivoi Rog, with a defensive success for the Germans. Heavy fighting is going on in the Vitebsk area as well as throughout the Dnieper bend. The centre of gravity of the fighting is in the area west of Zhitomir.

“Pravda” says that the most important result of General Vatutin’s Kiev offensive has been the rout of crack German tank divisions, including the Hermann Goering and das Reich divisions. This is particularly significant, as these divisions, says “Pravda,” are “the only real Germans—genuine Nazis, trained in murder, and taught to hold out in the darkest hour. Their losses have been so huge that only six or eight men remain in some companies. A front-line correspondent, in a dispatch to “Izvestia,” says; “I have not seen a single position, any road, trench, or a single foot of soil in the path of our troops advancing beyond Zhitomir and Berdichev, that does not bear traces of our shells. The voice of war can be heard everywhere, as evergrowing columns of Russian guns and infantry march down the roads.”, “General Vatutin’s columns are pressing on rapidly from Berdichev over a broad front against the old Polish border,” says the British United Press. “This column has captured

Novomiropol, halfway between Berdichev and Shepetovka, and by the capture of Zozov is now only 25 miles east-north-east of Vinnitsa.

“Other places captured by the Russians include the railway station of Lipovets, 23 miles east of Vinnitsa.” Correspondents also report the capture of Kovno, on the railway from Berdichev to Brest Litovsk.

A Russian communique reports the capture of Zashkov, 35 miles due south .of Belaya Tserkov; Chodorkov, 28 miles south-west of Zhitomir, andGoIrodnitsa, which is the terminus of the (railway line on the old Polish frontier, (20 miles north-west of Novograd Volinsk.

The Red Army column which took Belaya Tserkov is pushing out south'eastwards in the direction of Cherkasy.

The first official Russian announcement that the 1939 border had been crossed came in Thursday night’s Red Army communique, which reported i-the capture of Rokitno. The communique said: “The Red Army, north of Nevel, continued its offensive and captured several inhabited places. “Troops of the first Ukrainian front captured Rokitno, 12 miles west of the told Polish border, and Chudnov, a district centre in the Zhitomir region. They also captured a district centre in the Rowno region, and more than eight other inhabited places.” Red Army forces which crossed what the Russian communique calls “the old 'Polish border” on Tuesday have adJvanced nearly 35 miles inside Poland, says one report from Moscow. Moscow, however, is still silent officially about Red Army movements west of Olevsk and Novograd Volinsk. • Moscow correspondents dwell on General Vatutin’s concentration on (disrupting the Ukrainian railway network stretching from Rowno to Zhmelinka. The British United Press says that some of General Vatutin’s columns are thrusting westwards along the railway from Berdichev to Shepetovka, to cut the north-south line there, while, farther south, the Red Army is beating the Germans back along the railway from Berdichev to the important railway junction of Vinnitsa, where the Germans are likely to make their next stand.

“The German forces on the arc between Vinnitsa and Shepetovka are pouring back to the south-west oyer dirt roads designed to bear nothing bigger than farmers’ carts,” says this correspondent. South-west of Berdichev the enemy’s losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners are unofficially estimated at 12,000. The Germans are apparently concentrating on the defence of Vinnitsa with the object of holding off the Russians from the Odessa railway. “We shall not hold Russian territory merely for prestige reasons,” a German military spokesman told the Stockholm Telegraph Bureau’s Berlin correspondent. “If circumstances force fi total retreat from Russia, this would be a secondary consideration. Our first aim is to maintain an unbroken front.”

The Berlin radio, through its overseas service, which the German people do not hear, has forecast vast new retreats comparable with those of last summer and autumn, when the Germans fell back 350 miles from Kursk. The military commentator, Vallensleben, said: “Elastic defence and defence everywhere is again the order °f the day for the High Command this Winter. This probably means developments this winter similar to those seen during the summer and autumn in Russia. What does it matter if Rushan territory is given up in order to preserve our army in view of the tasks lacing the Wehrinacht elsewhere?”

Airport for Lisbon.—The work of Purging the port of Lisbon, which JL , bae n going on since 1931. will now m , a 110w maritime airport at rl'’ a >s. costing £500.000. The work 11 last four years.—London. Jan. 6.