WIDE PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 2, 28 September 1943, Page 5

WIDE PROGRESS

Soviet Forces Enter White Russia DNIEPER STRUGGLE (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 27. While a vast battle is under way along the Dnieper, and some small bridgeheads are believed to have been established on the right bank below Kiev, the Red Army has advanced on all other sectors. Today, exactly three months after the summer campaign opened with the German offensive against the Kursk salient, Red Army forces have entered White Russian Soviet Republic by capturing a town 75 miles west of Bryansk. Another important centre has been occupied only 30 miles east of Gomel. The Russians have cleared practically the whole of the east bank of the Dnieper below Kiev as far as Zaporozhe, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. The Germans are desperately clinging in strong pockets in the Kremenchug and Dnepropetrovsk areas, where they are,trying to get out the remain? ing forces and transport them across the Dnieper.

Moscow radio, summing up the effect of the latest Russian successes, says:

"Tlie gates to the west have been thrown wide open.” With Smolensk, the Germans’ greatest communication base on the central front overrun arid, according to the newspaper “Moscow News,” “the German plunderers already fleeing from Kiev like rats from a sinking ship, the Red Army is already able to turn the Dnieper from a defence barrier into a springboard for a further offensive movement.

A Soviet communique reports the capture today of more than 800 localities. In the Kuban, Soviet troops continued the offensive and occupied l several localities, including Perenkovo. In the Dnepropetrovsk direction, the Russians, overcoming enemy resistance, reached the Dnieper. In the Kremenchug direction the Russians advanced six to 9i miles, occupying 70 localities. On some sectors here and in the Kiev direction they reached the Dnieper. In the Gomel direction the forces advanced seven to 11 miles, occupying the town of Surazh and the town and railway junction of Novo Zybkov, setting free 300 other localities. In the Mohilev direction the Soviet troops advanced 9J to 16 miles, and occupied more than 250 localities. In the Vitebsk direction they advanced on some sectors four to seven miles and occupied over 200 localities. Vitebsk and Gomel. The five Russian columns which conmerged on Smolensk were composed of as many as 250,000 troops supported by 10 brigades of tanks and masses of fighters and bombers, state reports reaching London. The British United Moscow correspondent says the Russians are pouring through the shattered German defences round Smolensk and opening a formidable drive for Vitebsk and Gomel. The Red Army is grimly investing Kiev, one force, from the north-east, striking down between the Desna and the Dnieper, a force from Nyezhin frontally assaulting the city, while a third force is working up the Dnieper from the south. Reuter says the Germans are counter-attacking six times daily, but there is no evidence that the enemy is able to hold up the attackers. Reuter's Moscow correspondent ' says that between Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk, the main Russian forces are trying to extend and consolidate small- bridgeheads which are reported to have been established in the face of a very fierce artillery and mortar barrage. . Russian paratroops landed in the rear of the German lines on the middle Dnieper, according to the German news agency. It adds; “The Russians are throwing not only divisions but whole armies into the fight, which is a battle ot material on a gigantic scale.” . Today’s German communique claims that a Russian landing attempt on the coast of the Sea of Azov ended with the cofnplete destruction of the landing force. Pressure in Kuban, In the Kuban the enemy has been pressed back on to the Taman Peninsula. On the southern shore Soviet marines are co-operating with the Red Army in advancing toward the strait which separates the peninsula from the Crimea, and aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet air arm sank 20 craft which the Nazis were using to get their troops out of the trap. The Germans are reported to be fleeing in disorder from the Kuban in boats and barges. Yesterday the Russians on all sectors destroyed or damaged 40 tanks. In aerial engagements and by anti-aircraft fire 28 German planes were shot down. MINSK HIGHWAY German Demolitions (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 2G. In the Smolensk area is a lurid example of the German tactics in creating a dead zone in the path of the retreat, states a Moscow message. One of the most serious effects was the destruction of a large section of the modern MoscowMinsk highway, mile by mile, as the Germans retired. One of the innumerable craters which the Germans left in the road is 25. feet deep with a diameter of over 140 feet.