TO A NEW LINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1943, Page 5

TO A NEW LINE

GERMAN WITHDRAWAL

INCREASING FURY OF BATTLE

(Rec. 2.15 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 25. The east bank of the Don in the area west-south-west of ""bronezh has been cleared of German troops. A German High Command communique stated: "To shorten the front, we evacuated the Voronezh bridgehead according to plan, without enemy pressure. The High Command' plans to shorten the whole' of,,the Russian front and to build up a neijr defence line." This admission, which will be cold comfort to the German people, who are already alarmed after declarations that the military situation is critical, was I made tonight by the German news agency's military commentator, who added: "The winter battle is daily in- ! creasing in fury. No Power in the world could have faced the Russians' two-month onslaught as the Germans have done. The Russians are far superior in manpower and material compared with the Germans, yet they have had to conquer territory step by step. While propagandists . are thus preparing the Germans for more retreats, Moscow correspondents say that the whole German left wing of the southern armies is bending under the blows of the Red Army. General Golikov's drive westward and north-westward from his new positions south-west of Voronezh are threatening Hitler's bases at Kursk and Kharkov, and the Russians are within sight of cutting the vital Voronezh-Kursk railway. Six hundred miles to the south, the Russians are within 20 miles of Kavakazkaya, the important railway junction between Armavir and Tikhoretsk. SERIOUS SITUATION IN NORTH. The Berlin radio military spokesman admitted that the situation in the Stalingrad area has become considerably more serious, because of bitter new assaults against the north and west. "The enemy has broken in at a new point on the western front with strong forces," he ( says. "There is a rolling mass of fire of indescribable violence. "Our Sixth Army on Stalingrad has now won immortal honour in its heroic and sacrificial struggle against great superiority," states the German High Command communique. "Formations of Rumanians are fighting shoulder to shoulder with their German comrades to'the last man, and are fully sharing their glory."