ROUTED GERMANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1943, Page 5

ROUTED GERMANS

Desperate Efforts To Repair Gaps

"" In the first stages of these hattles ■ -more than 1000 Germans have been killed and 43 German tanks knocked ■'~©ut. The German resistance here is ;-• obviously intended as a screen for ."the escape of the main Kharkov gar-vj-ison now retreating to the west, but, -even if they wanted to, they are get--■■'ting no chance to reform, as fast '• Soviet columns are right on their Keels. ' The country over which the Germans -are fleeing is barren and offers little '.: cover. At the southern end of the front Taganrog is increasingly threat-,-ened by the Russian advance along the coastal road from Rostov, and last night advanced Soviet columns were /only 17 miles away. Discussing the retreat from Kharkov a correspondent says that no one : knows where the fleeing Germans are making for. They are retreating over -bad1 country, and for a partially dis-•'•-organised army it must seem like the v end of the world. For many of the

- troops it will be. ,<• The correspondent gives details of the storming of Kharkov and of the manner in which the Germans were outwitted. He says the strongest '■military formations had been concentrated to the east of the city, but the " ■ Germans were caught napping _by Soviet forces who made an astonish- • ing forced march and struck suddenly ,*. and decisively in the north-western - suburbs. The Germans never re- * covered from this .blow. They called : up all the aircraft they could muster, -to try to save the situation, but Rus- ■ sian bombers and dive-bombers were ~ also busy, and the roads around the city were soon littered and blocked by i-the ruins of enemy lorries and tanks. i With the lines already broken, the Ger- : man positions crumbled. Down in the Donets Basin the Rusysian armies are continuing their great '- sweeping movement deeper and deeper "to the south-west. Soviet columns ' pushing south are reported to have . made fresh advances in the -past 12 : hours, and the Germans are trying to .hold up the retreat with persistent, ■' counter-attacks.

LONDON, February 17. The Russians are pushing west from Kharkov and are menacing another big German base at Taganrog. As the great Russian offensive moves to the end of the third month Stalin's armies, following up their brilliant series of victories, are rolling the Germans back all along the 400-r mile front from Kursk to the Sea of Azov.

Russian troops who yesterday stormed and captured Kharkov are today hot on the heels of the routed enemy forces west of the city.. The Germans are making desperate efforts to repair the gTeat gaps torn in their line. They have brought up large panzer formations, and big tank battles are raging this morning1 on the plains beyond the city.