WESTERN RAILWAY SEVERED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 91, 13 January 1944, Page 5

WESTERN RAILWAY SEVERED

Baltic Sea To Rumania GLUM GERMAN PROPAGANDA

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.!

LONDON, January I 2

The German eastern armies’ north-to-south supply line from the Baltic Sea to Rumania has been cut by the Red Army on both sides of Sarny, 35 miles inside the pre-war Polish border. That junction, which is being shelled from five miles away by the semiencircling Russians, is now practically useless to the enemy, who are facing serious dislocation of their supply system for this part of the front. The Russians have made a big advance south-west of Novograd Volynsk, taking them to a point 1 2 miles from Shepetovka, the junction on the Warsaw-Odessa line. . On the southern front of General Vatutin s offensive the Germans are making a desperate attempt to guard this railway, and a major battle is developing along the River Bug. The Germans have thrown substantial tank and infantry reinforcements across the river. Though the Russians have not yet managed to cross the half-frozen river they are steadily extending their grip along the bank and are now 12 or 15 miles from Zhmerinka junction.

The Moscow correspondent of the “News-Chronicle" says he doubts whether the Germans have had time to build ireally substantial defences along the banks of the Bug, and he does not think they have sufficient men to defend the whole river line in strength. Also, if the Russians to the west keep up their progress they will soon be able to turn the whole of the river line.

i Moscow radio declared that since January the armies of Generals Vatutin and Koniev have disposed of more than 60,000 Germans and liberated more than 1700 populated places. “Fight For Time.” The German public is busily being prepared for worse news in the futijre. Large-scale German withdrawals on the eastern front were foreshadowed by the High Command spokesman, General Dietmar, last night in the gloomiest broadcast yet. , _ “The volume of power the Russians are hurling into their attacks is rising steadily. It drowns the opponent, specially when his numerical strength is markedly inferior. ' This need not prevent the German defence from proving successful, but grave and most painful decisions have to be taken in which geographical considerations' are ot but secondary importance. Above all, the German armies must fight for time, because they have to consider the situation on other fronts as well.” . The Germans had now been fighting for six months against an almost ceaseless Russian offensive, he said, and there was no sign of it coming to a halt. He called on the Germans to face the situation with the same uncompromising attitude as was shown by the United Nations. The accounts of the fighting on the eastern front given by the Berlin spokesmen yesterday were for the first time almost identical with the accounts given bv the Russians themselves, says the “Daily Mail’s" Stockholm correspondent.

He quotes one Berlin spokesman as saying: “Vatutin’s northern army is plunging deeper and deeper into Poland. We don’t know what is going on in some places. Our counter-attacks do not appear to be throwing much sand in the wheels of the Russian war machine. The German Army is in a situation of the utmost danger, and our losses have reached a very high figure. The total number of prisoners taken on either side is much lower than the number killed. “The Germans ,on the southern sector of the front can expect to withdraw right back to the Bug River line.’” The “Daily Telegraph’s" Stockholm correspondent says that General Vatutin’s forces are reported to have occupied a -40-mi!e stretch of the cast bank of the River Bug south-east of Vinnitsa. “General Vatutin’s spearheads are only a dozen miles from the vital OdessaWarsaw railway, and should the Red Army seize it half ia million German troops in the Dnieper bend, weary after the 20 days of tremendous fighting, will find themselves at the mercy of big Russian armies, prepared to fall on them from all directions,” says. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Germans “Wasting Men.” He points out that the Russian front has reached a point a little over 300 miles from the Ploetsi oilfields, which is much nearer than any Allied air base. The correspondent quotes the annihilation of five enemy divisions north and north-west of Kirovograd as a typical example of the way the Germans are wasting men in futile counter-attacks. These encircled forces assembled their tanks first and tried to punch their way out of the ring. They failed, resulting in the annihilation of thousands of Germans who might have been withdrawn in time to help defend Odessa. A similar wastage of men in a hopeless- attempt to) hold on to doomed positions is going on in other sectors west and north-west of Kirovograd/ The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says that the progressive collapse of the German front in the western and southern Ukraine does not mean that the enemy resistance is flagging. On the contrary, the enemy is counter-at-tacking vigorously wherever he is able 'lo manoeuvre his forces. The Germans are resisting particularly strongly west ,nd south-west of Bcrdichev, where they pre trying to prevent the .Russians from pouring down behind Vinnitsa.

TWO FOCAL AREAS Shape Of Offensive LONDON, January 11. There are two focal areas on the south Russian battlefront. One is the German salient dividing General Koniev’s western flank beyond Kirovograd from General Vatutin’s eastern flank below Kiev. The second is below the southern fringe of the great Ukraine bulge, where a big battle is developing. In the first of those areas the Germans in the salient are in a critical position. The salient yesterday was 40 miles wide at the top along the banks of the Dnieper. Its flanks were SO miles deep and its .base was 70 miles across. All the German forces in these battle areas depend mainly for their communications with Germany on the trunk railway which runs westward from Odessa between the Bug and the Dniester, and which General Vatutin’s columns, turning souhtward from the great Kiev bulge, are approaching. Vinnitsa, the German stronghold covering the line, itself is outflanked and last night Russian troops were 10 miles east of the town.'Sixty miles north-east of the Dniester General Vatutin has stormed the defences on the left bank of the Bug, writes a Moscow correspondent. The Germans are getting no time to recover, in spite of the abundance of strongpoints in this area. The arrival of a fresh German tank division failed to stabilize the position and the shattered remnants of the units are now in flight to the south. The left flank of Vatutin’s southern group has now turned south-east toward Uman, on which General Koniev is also advancing by the broad modern highway from Kirovograd. With this latest manoeuvre Vatutin has simultaneously widened his front against the Bug line. Nearer to Uman. The Red Army has reached the approaches to Uman, reports Renter's Moscow correspondent. He adds that though Red Array columns are manoeuvring at great speed against. Sinyela and Novo Ukrainka the headway is being won only at, the cost of tremendous effort. The battlefields lie in densely populated regions, where the villages almost join each

other, and every house has been, convertd into a strongpoint. , “The threat of a huge encirclement of the German forces in the Ukraine is growing every hour as Vatutin’s and Koniev s armies march toward each 'other across the flat plains west of the Dnieper,” says the United Press Moscow correspondent. “It looks as if the two armies will meet on the northern fringe, of Odessa Province. . , , “Moscow opinion is that the trap is almost set, and the Germans will have great diffifiilty in escaping, even if they are able to do so. Moscow significantly took the annihilation of five German divisions in the Ukraine, reported in yesterday’s communique, as a matter of course, whereas a year ago it would have been considered a notable event.” The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says that strong Red Army forces are consolidating a chain of positions east of the Berjichev-Vinnitsa railway in preparation for any attempt von Mannstein might make to punch at the right flank of the deep Russian salient. This appears to be the most exposed section of Vatutin’s front, where the greatest vigilance is necessary. The Russians have linked up two bridgeheads on the Kerch Peninsula, according to Berlin radio, which stated: “The Red Army landed several divisions north of their one remaining bridgehead. Then, in spite of continuous air attacks, they succeeded in linking up the two units. A message from Leningrad says that yesterday Soviet dive-bombers carried out mass attacks on German long-range batteries that have been bombarding the city.

RUSSIAN MYSTERY DRIVE

Nazi Story Unsupported

LONDON, January 11. A German statement that a Russian force has reached the neighbourhood of Kowel, 115 miles west of the 1939 Polish border, is not supported by any Russian report. Reuter says: “It follows the publication, through the same source, of other pessimistic statements, the motive for which has been the subject of some conjecture.”Kowel is just' south of the Pripet Marshes. If the German report is true the Russian advance may -be based on a thrust by an advanced Russian, unit along- the southern edge of this sparsely-populated and thinly-held . area. [The latest official Rusisan reports do not go further than mentioning the capture' of towns north and south of Sarny, some 40 miles inside the frontier.]

LATEST CAPTURES

(Received January 12, 7 p.m.) LONDON, January 11. Tonight’s Russian communique reports that Red Army forces on the Sluch River occupied the railway station of Selsk, 74 miles north of Sarny, and the railway station of Nemovichi, eight miles south of Sarny, on the Rovno-Sarny-Vilna railway. The Russians south-west and sotuh of Novograd Volynsk continued their offensive and captured Yarun, nine miles south-west of Novograd Volynsk, and 30 inhabited places, including Klodonko, 15 miles south-west of Novograd Volynsk. The Red Army west and south-west of Berdichev overcame counter-attacks and captured several inhabited places, including Kransncpol. 25 miles west of Berdichev, and also forged ahead south of Belava Tserkov. and captured several inhabited places. KIROVOGRAD VICTORY (Received January 12. 7 p.m.) LONDON, January 11. A supplementary Russian communique says that according to incomplete records the enemy between January 5 and 8 in the Kirovograd area lost 15,000 men in killed alone, besides 293 tanks and 296 guns destroyed. The Russians also captured 150 tanks.