BEGINNING OF END

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 7, 10 January 1944, Page 5

BEGINNING OF END

FALL OF KEY FORTRESS ,

LONDON, January 9. The fall of Kirovograd, kingpin of General yon Mannstein's Dnieper bend line, 40 miles south-east of Smela, marks the beginning of the end in the Dnieper bend, says Reuters military correspondent. The Red Army's wide advance carries the Russians well forward against the flank of the German forces remaining on the Krivoi Rog and Nikopol sectors. It is clear that a complete withdrawal cannot be long delayed if the Germans there are to j avoid encirclement. Observers in Moscow believe that the Red Army is strong enough to maintain the vigour of the present campaign and begin new ones when the time is opportune. Another Russian army is moving closer to Vinnitsa, on the River Bug, but this is strongly defended and likely to resist a frontal attack for some ! time. A strong Soviet column has captured an important road junction in this area and is also well to the southeast of the town, thus threatening to i make the German positions untenable. I The German front, from the upper Bug River to the eastern Dnieper bend is collapsing like a house of cards. Moscow correspondents say that thousands

of German troops face catastrophe on an unprecedented scale. Russian forces totalling 150,000 men, strongly supported by mobile and heavy guns, Stormovik aircraft, and a great weight of armour, are now rolling massively forward beyond Kirovograd to threaten the Germans in the Dnieper bend with the loss of their few remaining ways of escape.