DNIEPER BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 91, 14 October 1943, Page 5

DNIEPER BATTLE

NOW !N FULL BLAST

LONDON, October 13. The battle for the Dnieper bridgeheads is still raging at full blast. The German news agency admits that the German defence line on the west bank of the Dnieper has been withdrawn at certain places under violent Russian attacks. A correspondent says this is no battle of rearguards, but the real thing. The Germans are throwing in all they have got, including large numbers of aircraft. Russian fighters keep the bombers away, and low-flying Russian divebombers attack the enemy columns. Guerrillas back from Kiev describe the devastation in the city, and attacking Soviet troops can see that much of the city is on fire. In the far south, Russian gunners are firing across the Kerch. Straits at the coastal defences in the Crimea. The German commentator Captain Sertorius says that Soviet forces have landed on the southern coast of the Crimea. He said it was too early yet to decide whether it was a major attack or only a reconnaissance thrust. The autumn rains and^ difficult going have not caused any lessening of the fighting. The Red Army has again pushed forward towards Vitebsk, and in the Gomel area the Germans have lost 5500 men,in two days of fighting. Rain is falling all along the 200-mile long battlefield. The enemy is stub-