FORGING AHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 32, 8 February 1943, Page 3

FORGING AHEAD

RED ARMY ADVANCE

GERMANS MAY RALLY ON DNIEPER

(By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright.) (Rec. 2 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 7. As street fighting rages in Rostov and the Germans in the Caucasus are apparently "in the bag," the Red Army's relentless advance against Hitler's central bastions forges ahead. The Russians have considerably lessened the distances separating them from Kursk, Kharkov, and Byelgorod, and are now 90 miles from the Dnieper, where the Germans are expected to attempt a stand. The Russians finally closed the last overland retreat for the Germans in the Kuban area by breaking through, to Yeisk. The more northward advances give the Russians control of the coastline between Yeisk and the Don mouth. The Germans remaining in the Caucasus, whose numbers have not yet been officially estimated, are thus only able to escape by sea to the Crimea. . ~ Morley Richards, writing in the "Daily Express," estimates that 120,000 Germans remain to be evacuated across Kerch Strait, but he says that the Germans are unlikely to get more than 20 000 to 30,000 men away by this route. Moscow reports emphasise that the Russians control half of the east coast of the Sea of Azov and have recently liberated 1200 square miles of territory they assert that a German force is surrounded in the narrow pocket facing the Gulf of Taganrog, while yon List is trying to extricate his forces south of Yeisk, for which purpose he possesses only the port of Akhtan, which the Russians are already menacing. RUSSIAN QUARRY AROUND ROSTOV. "The Times" correspondent in Stockholm says that since Friday the German position has greatly deteriorated everywhere below Orel, which like Kursk and Kharkov, is on the immediate fringe of the long battle line which the Russsians are continuously driving westward. Although seriously threatening Kursk and Kharkov and eneaeins large German forces, the RusS are envisioning a far greater ouTrry namely, the whole Don Basin, 2mbr&ing Rostov, which has been en£d and Voroshilovgrad, Novoand Shakti.