Important Railway Town Captured

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 27, 2 February 1943, Page 5

Important Railway Town Captured

LONDON, February 1

The Russians tonight announced the capture of the important town and railway station of Svatovo, on the northern Donets front, by Soviet troops after a fierce attack. This latest Russian success represents a significant forward move, since Svatovo is on the railway from Kharkov through Kupyansk, which has hitherto been completely under German control.

The cutting of the line means that yet another vital Ger- * man supply line has been broken.

The chief centre of interest in the Russian fighting has shifted today from Stalingrad down to the western Caucasus, where a large German army is in grave danger of having its retreat cut off. This army, 250,000 strong when it marched into the Caucasus last summer, has been pinned by the Russians into the extreme western corner of the Kuban country, and the territory under its -control is being reduced every hour by fresh Soviet advances.

. While swift Russian tank columns and motorised infantry units are lnfil- ' trating behind the enemy lines, playing havoc with his lines of retreat. Cossack cavalry is smashing scattered German and Rumanian units all along the line. , . The main Soviet attacks are being directed towards Krasnodar, the Kuban capital, and the last German strong'hdld in the western Caucasus. The Russians are converging on Krasnodar from the south, south-east, east, and north-east, and at one point they are <miy 25 miles from the town. A branch railway runs from Krasnodar to Ros"tbv. This is the only remaining railway link for the Germans with their Imam forces north of the town, and if the Russians cut the line the enemy will be forced to try to escape across the Kerch Straits to the Crimea. This route is covered by the guns of the Russain Black Sea Fleet. * ;- _ Enemy forces further north in the Kuban country may attempt a hazardous retreat across the Sea of Azov. *■*■■ Further north, behind Voronezh, the seven trapped Axis divisions are facing annihilation or surrender. Many Hun----garians and Germans have already ..Been captured, and the rest are run- - ping short of food and ammunition. • At Stalingrad a small group of Ger■mans—all that is left of the once great -Sixth Army—is being steadily wiped but north of the city. The "News Chronicle" reporter, in his dispatch "from Moscow to the 8.8.C. tonight, deScribes the great scenes of animation in the strets of Stalingrad. Women and children who had lived for months in -dug-outs were going today in search of their homes; dragging their few possessions behind them on little sledges.