Late News TRIPLE RUSSIAN DRIVE

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

Late News TRIPLE RUSSIAN DRIVE

Soviet Northern Armies KANEV TRAP NOW NARROWED (Received February I's, 1.40 a.m.) LONDON, February 14. A triple Russian thrust toward the Battle States, East Prussia and Poland appears to be developing, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. The Russian northern armies are pressing south-west toward Pskov, the gateway to Estonia and Latvia, after taking Luga and clearing the shores of Lake Peipus. Fresh Russian thrusts in the Vitebsk and Nevel areas further south are reported by the Germans who also speak of fighting in the outskirts of Dubno, 27 miles south-west of Rovno. The Russian wedge, nearly 50 miles wide which is advancing against the Baltic States is now within 30 miles of Pskov. General Meretskov’s troops from Novogorod are also heading in the same direction while further powerful forces are moving westward from the Sokolniki area further south. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the latest developments place in acute danger the entire German line from Pskov to Staraya Russa and back to tlm west from Sokolniki. Meanwhile, the Russians have bitten deeply into the north-western bulge of the Knnev trap where the remnants of General Stemmerman’s army are fighting their last. The trap has now shrunk to a rectangle 15 miles by five. Russian guus and mortars are keeping up a merciless barrage against every yard of the trap and Cossack cavalrymen are cleaning up isolated German detachments, yet the enemy is still fighting as stubbornly as ever.