Overwhelming Enemy

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 5, 8 January 1944, Page 5

Overwhelming Enemy

NAZI DISORDER GROWS

LONDON, January 7. The Russian armies in the western Ukraine are overwhelming the shattered German forces in all directions. A Moscow message says' that the speed and power of General Vatutin's advance is bringing increasing disorder to yon Mannstein's defeated troops. Some German divisional staffs are having to change their headquarters as often as twice a day. Units are frequently isolated and out of touch with' other units which are supposed to be supporting them and the losses among the.G-ermans are enormous. Front-line reports reaching Moscow say that Vatutin's men everywhere have terrific morale. Sometimes they have to push forward for 80 hours and more without a rest, but they seem indifferent to fatigue and bad weather. Frost alternates with fog and rain, tanks get stuck in softeningsnow, and guns often have to be manhandled or even dismantled and carried, but the Red Army troops carry on.

Still exploiting the capture of Belaya Tserkov and Berdichev, they are hurling the Germans back to the south-east, the south, and the southwest. The Russians' twin thrusts westwards along the highway and railway that lead to Warsaw are carrying them through wild forest country with bad swamps and few roads. A dispatch j from Moscow says that the ground is just as bad for the Germans, who still j seem unable to concentrate enough forces to check Vatutin's steadily developing offensive. On the Baltic front the town of Nevel is out of range of German guns and is being built up into a big forward base. The Russians are pushing ahead in spite of all natural and ma*imade obstacles. Red Army men, carrying their light J guns and supplies on their shoulders, ! are forcing their way along narrow ! necks of land between lakes. They i are always having to build bridges over the unstable ice and the only half-frozen swamps. Deep gullies h.^ve to be negotiated.J The forests are full of mines and mantraps. Sometimes the fighting men have to get to work with axes and saws to clear the paths, which are blocked with tough pines felled by the retreating Germans. The Germans are counter-attacking at every opportunity, but the Red Army advance goes on.

and 12 miles from Sarny, also Yanushpol, 15 miles west of Berdichev, and several district centres in the Vinnitsa region. "Troops of the First Ukrainian Front linked up with Red Army troops holding a'bridgehead on the west bank of the Dnieper south of Kiev. "Troops of the Second Ukrainian Front, under General Koniev, went over to the offensive and have broken the enemy's defences in the Kirovograd sector. The Red Army, in a threeday offensive, extended the breakthrough to a width of 60 miles and a depth of 25 miles, liberating more than 120 places, including two district centres in the Kirovograd region. "The Red Army has surrounded : Kirovograd from all sides. Three infantry, one tank, and one motorised division were routed during the battle. The enemy suffered heavy I casualties."