BIG FLANKING MOVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1943, Page 5

BIG FLANKING MOVE

RUSSIAN GOAL APPARENT

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 9 a.m. LONDON, July 20. Driving from the north-west of Orel, one Russian spearhead has captured the town of Ilinskoe, seven miles north of the Orel-Bryansk railway, states Reuters Moscow correspondent. This spearhead is now north of Khotynets, the key station on the railway. The capture of Ilinskoe and the extension of the Russian grip on the territory east of the Vitibet River between Khotynets and Karachev, including the capture of four townships, have considerably widened the Russian wedge north-west of Orel.

The German setbacks in Russia are being explained in Berlin, according to Reuters Zurich correspondent, as due to the Russians' "vast numerical superiority." The .Swiss newspaper "Die Tat" quotes a German front-line reporter as declaring that "during the period since last week I have seen more men die than I saw sleep." The British United Press Moscow correspondent says that the Russian spearhead, operating in conjunction with that which captured Ilinskoe, has reached Moilovo, half-way between Bryansk and Sukhinichi. The Russians south of Orel have reached a point where they hold the city within range of their heavy guns. The latest front-line reports indicate a big Russian flanking movement from the north, with a direct attack from the south and from the east. The Russian plan obviously is to encircle Orel and also cut the Bryansk-Sukhinichi-Moscow railway.

The width of the Russian flank attack threatening the Orel-Bryansk line and the - Bryansk-Sukhinichi line is about 35 miles.