STRUGGLE FOR VITEBSK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 5

STRUGGLE FOR VITEBSK

LONDON, January 5. Tonight's messages from Moscow indicate that General Vatutin has switched the main weight of his great offensive to the south and south-west of Kiev, and now has the important town of Berdichev almost within his grasp. ■ Several Bed Army columns have been rapidly converging on Berdichev in the last few days and tonight's German High Command communique admits that the garrison has evacuated the eastern half of the town under the mounting weight of the Soviet attack. In the Novograd Volynsk area due west of Kiev the Germans have been counter-attacking strongly for the past 24 hours, but the Russians have thrown the enemy back every time and have themselves pressed forward at several points. Meanwhile, heavy fighting continues on the northern front. The Germans are reported to be putting up a tooth-and-nail fight toehold Vitebsk. They still hold several defence lines around the town and have brought up many more guns in the past week.

Further north the Russian drive from Nevel is gaining momentum despite difficult terrain and uncertain weather.

Reports that Soviet troops have crossed 4 the 1939 Polish, border have been followed this evening by a statement from the Polish Government m London. The statement recalls that the Poles were the first people to take up the German challenge and that they have been-fighting.-the aggressor for four years on land, on sea, and in the air,, as well as underground in ?The Polish' nation," the statement continues, "is therefore entitled to expect full justice and redress as soon as it is set free from enemy occupation, and the first condition of such justice is the earliest possible re-estab-lishment of Polisfr'summary administration in the liberated territory. The Polish Government expects that the Soviet Union will not fail to respect the rights and interests of the Polish : Eepublic arid its citizens. - . '5t was in that belief that the Polish Government instructed the underground authorities in Poland last October to intensify their resistance to the invaders, to avoid all conflict with the Soviet armies entering Poland, to carry on the fight against the Germans, and to co-operate, with the Soviet commanders in the event of a resumption of Polish-Soviet relations." . The statement ends by expressing a desire for a Polish-Soviet agreement which will enable the Polish underground army to co-ordinate its actions with the Soviet military authorities.