DRIVE TOWARD PSKOV

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 119, 15 February 1944, Page 5

DRIVE TOWARD PSKOV

Russians Flatten Great Leningrad Bulge (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright* > LONDON, February 14. Reports from Moscow say that Red Army columns, following the capture of Luga, are driving on to Pskov, keypoint of the German defences guarding the way to Estonia Cavalry units are reported to be within 30 miles of the town, which is on the southeast corner of Lake Peipus, and 170 miles south-west of Leningrad, and the garrison is hard at work building road-blocks and other defences in the outskirts. Thus the big German bulge on the Leningrad front has been flattened to a sharply-angled wedge, with its point at Staraya Russa, and because of its great length, the wedge is extremely vulnerable to flank attack either from the north or the south.

■Reports from the Russian front indicate that the Red Army has never faced such bright prospects. The fate of Vitebsk, Krivoi Rog, and Narva hangs in the balance.

Last-Pitch Struggle. LONDON, February 13. Moscow correspondents say that every grove, hillock anil stream in the Kanev pocket is the scene o£ a ghastly last-ditcn struggle.’ Cossacks are roving the country cleaning up isolated German detachments with their sabres. The Russian commanders are taking the “island piece bv pjece. The Russian guns cover the whole remaining area, and the final defettuctidn of the Germans cannot be long delayed. • North of Svenigorodka and Snpola, according to a Soviet communique, the Red Army continued the extermination of the encircled enemy forces and occupied v a number of places. The Russians simul-

taneously north-west of Svenigorodka repelled major tank and infantry attacks from forces attempting to relieve the encircled forces, inflicting heavy losses in manpower and equipment. A German news agency commentator, Hallensleben, says: “The latest events on , the eastern front can be understood only as the inevitable consequence of Germany’s determination to keep a free hand for eventualities in the west. The German High Command keeps to its plans, even in moments of crisis.” The German news agency’s commentator von Hammer says: “The Red Army is throwing gigantic forces of tanks, infantry and planes into the battle for Vitebsk. Fighting continues with undiminished violence. The Russians are trying to roll up the arc of the Vitebsk front.”