FATE NOW IN BALANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 93, 16 October 1943, Page 7

FATE NOW IN BALANCE

Nazi Southern Armies

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

Bee. 1 p.m. " LONDON, October 15. The fate of two German armies in the Crimea and southern Ukraine is in the balance tonight. The fall of Zaporozhe is likely to be their death-knell, says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. . . The way is now open for the Red Army to turn the Germans* Melitopol line and sweep into the steppes westward, thereby cutting off the Crimea from the iiorth. The Russians south of Zaporozhe have already twice cut the railway from Sevastopol. This means that the sole remainingl route left to the Germans for evacuating their troops from the Crimea is the hastily-constructed railway from Jankoi to Kherson. ■ The capture of Zaporozhe makes possible a new Red Army drive down the west bank of the Dnieper to Kherson. Another great implication of the capture of Zaporozhe is an added menace to the Germans in the great Dnieper loop because other Russian forces, from Kremenchug are thrusting south-westward and threatening tf lop off 12,000 square miles of the Dnieper bend. ">"..-

Reuters military writer says that the full magnitude of the Russian vie- j tory at Zaporozhe may not become apparent for a day or two. It may even be much greater than Stalingrad. If the report is correct that the Russians have already crossed the Dnieper it suggests a serious crack in German morale. . Heuter's Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians are massing west of Zaporozhe and adds that the j Germans in the Crimea risk a trap of Stalingrad scale. The fate of Melitopol at the southern extremity of the German position guarding the lower Dnieper and the Crimea may be said to have been sealed, says the same cor-. respondent. ! The battle for, Melitopol will rank amongst the fiercest of the war. The Russians in the centre-of Melitopol are infiltrating the German, lines by "mouse-holing" from house to house and fighting their way across the: roofs. Dispatches from Moscow today say that strong Russian forces have reached the main defences of Kiev in the rear of the city and are steadily crushing them. The Russian bridgeheads overj the Dnieper are now so wide that the Russian headquarters on this front have moved to the west bank of the river. • As these momentous, battles go on correspondents give sidelights of the capture of the Dnieper Bend city of Zaporozhe. A heavy pall of smoke still lies over the city and the streets are strewn with German dead. Russian soldiers from Stalingrad took part in this triumph. ' One report says that the last stages of the battle were marked by scenes of panic among the remaining Germans. They started to flee in disorder over the Dnieper, trying to get across to the western bank by swimming, on rafts, by clinging to empty barrels, and even to the 4 tails of horses. Hundreds were caught in the water and hit by machine-gun bullets. Tonight's Moscow communique says that the Russians have advanced from five to seven miles south of Zaporozhe. Street fighting continued today in Melitopol and all German counterattacks were repulsed. The Russians also improved their positions north and south of Kiev.