RED TROOPS IN OREL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 31, 5 August 1943, Page 5

RED TROOPS IN OREL

Final Phase Of Battle

DEFENDERS IN RETREAT

LONDON, August 4

The Russian armies have broken through the defences of Orel, and the final battle for possession of the city is raging tonight in the streets. The Soviet communique reports another day of steady, advances of from three to four miles, and the Soviet armies have captured 80 more places, including a railway station a mile or two to the north of the town and a large place on the outsMrts. Earlier news told how the main Russian forces were massing for the final blow against Orel. , The violent nature of the battle ia hinted at in the communique, which says that yesterday, on all sectors in Russia, 236 German tanks were destroyed or knoeked-out and 130 enerpy planes were shot down in air combat. It is esitmated that most of this occurred on the Orel front. For some time the Orel-Bryansk railway has been under fire from Russian guns, and the Russians have been increasing the pressure on a station half-way along the line. '•"■''.. The loss of Orel would deprive the Germans of one of their most\ important strongholds on the Russian front, second only to Smolensk. Orel has been the hinge between the'central a_ad southern fronts, and has always been-a potential threat to Moscow. The, Germans began strengthening the Orel position in the winter of 1941, and its fortifications were immensely powerful. The fall of the city will imperil about 200,000 German troops. GERMAN WITHDRAWAL ADMITTED. The Russian report that their troops were fighting in the streets' of Orel has been followed by a Berlin report that they have abandoned the city. The German news agency said that German troops were withdrawing "according to plan" after all military installations had been evacuated. It added that the Germans were withdrawing to more favourable positions prepared well in advance.

It is reported that Cossacks and tommy- and machine-gunner." in jeeps are pursuing' the Germans (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 10 a.m. • LONDON, August 4. The Germans have begun a new'retreat in all sectors of the Orel front. Reuters Moscow correspondent says that the Germans are in full and precipitate retreat. Rokossovsky's three main Russian armies are plunging on towards^ Orel from Ihe north, south, and east. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says the Germans are making the withdrawal over secondary roads. . They are desperately counterattacking with tanks and infantry in the effort to protect their flanks where the jaws of the .Russian pincers are biting hardest. Other messages from Moscow say that the escape gap has been narrowed down to 12 miles. The highways along which the Germans1 are retreating are under constant fire. Night attacks are allowing the Russians to exploit their, advantages. Their motorised infantry is by-pass-ing the enemy strong-points without being seen, and when dawn breaks the Russians are ready to press forward

, -_ _— , j mans also have admitted the failure of their protective offensive in the Donets Basin area, which the Russians fought to a standstill.

.."In addition the Germans are becoming anxious. about the two frontline sectors curving westward opposite Kursk and between Lake Ilmen iand Velikie Luki, which hitherto have been relatively quiet. The Germans are now paying attention to the Russian accumulations of men and materials and also their front-line activity.

"German military spokesmen are so anxious as to suggest that the Germans may have overthinned-these lines to reinforce the positions in the Orel sector. Obviously any Russian extension of the Kursk bulge would directly affect the Orel-Bryansk battle. ' Anyforward drive between Lake llmen and Vplikie Luki, like all the Russian offensives hitherto, will be a resumption of the strategy of the winter campaign when an early thaw balked the Russian efforts to, capture Staraya Russa and cut the railways near Velikie Luki."