MOUNTING THREAT TO SMOLENSK

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 306, 21 September 1943, Page 5

MOUNTING THREAT TO SMOLENSK

Progress In Hard Task

(British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) LONDON, September 19. Tlie Red Army’s new offensive extends the front of the Russian advance another 100. miles northward to beyonu Smolensk and brings the Russians uv miles north-east of that city. An order of the day addressed to Generals Yeremenko and Sokolovsky, states :—■ “Troops of the Kalinin front, m tour days of fierce lighting, broke a strongly fortified enemy defence zone and Cieared positions loiig prepared at Riksheyo, ijerdiiio, Lomonosova, Kulagino and i anKratov. Soviet troops took by storm a most important defence point on tne road to Smolensk, the town of Dukhovshchina. Troops of the western front, after stubborn lighting, broke the enemy resistance and occupied an important point of the German defence on the approaches to Smolensk, the town and station ot Yartsevo.” The order of the day then refers to the opening of the ‘so-called •Smolensk gate.’ ” , . The usual salvoes were ordered to be fired in Moscow. . Yartsevo, which is on the main route from Moscow via- Vyazma is ol miles north-cast of Smolensk, and Dukliovshciiina is 32 miles north-north-east ot tlie C * Reuter’s bioscow correspondent reports that the Russians arc also thrusting from Yelnva. south-east of Smolensk. Hsvm„ taken one of the great ring of fortresses covering Smolensk, the Red Army can advance to Smolensk s nearer defences. Reuter describes Smolensk as the gateway to the Baltic Republics and perhaps the toughest nut of the whole German line now facing a mounting t hrpat fro ™ the north, from the cast, and fiom the south-east. Deep Breaches Admitted.

Berlin radio tonight declared that the Russians, supported by strong bomber forces, had thrown iu fresh reserves ovci a -broad front north and south of the Smolensk-Moscow highway The. radio added that the Germans withdrewJU fetors south-west ot Roslavl, following deep breaches in their positions. . The Red Army is not slackenin,, in its other hammerblow against Kiev. Reuter points out that the capture of L riluk and Lubni has straightened the hu.M< n line west of Kharkov and c-imultanemisly ■broadened the great salient aimed at Kiev. The present Russian hue rough y follows the sweep of the Dnieper, with Poltava standing like a single dam Memmrnff the flood. ... The capture of Krasnograd, halt-way ■between Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk, shows that the Germans tire now being cleared out of the salient formed by the Russians west of Kharkov and those in ■the Donetz Basin. The new- crossing of the Desna on a wide front 50 miles south-south-west ot Bryansk, leaves the Germans liitlc. it any. foothold remaining on the west hank of the Desna between Bryansk ano ChcrBl, j'he latest official report says that the troops who captured Mirgorod and v.omodan, the junction for Kremenchug Kiev-Poltava line, killed more than 1000 Germans at one place. Two hundred prisoners were taken in an advance to a point 40 miles north-east of Kiev.

Hustling the Germans.

The enemy tried counter-attacks to prevent the Russian advance, on Zaporozhe and Melitopol, but Soviet mobile units by-passed strong places and con■tinned to advance, leaving points 01 resistance to be cleared by the fo !o«in„ iroonk The troops who cap tired Chernigovka, east of Zaporozhe, killed Germans and took much booty and many prisoners. • , „ Pavlograd was captured after the Gelman defences on the rivers Samara and Volchvn bad been broken and a German infantry regiment wiped out. Hustling the Germans eastward of the Russians killed or wounded -000 at a river crossing and captured .the entire artillery and arms of two regiments, together with 800 prisoners. Fifteen hundred Germans were killed in the pursuit from Novorossisk. In the Kuban a well-prepared position was broken and several thousand of the enemy wiped out. An eV cin^, tr ‘?. n a P ° l ’ t fl'oTi S sunk by aircraft of the Black Sea fleet.