NORTHERN OFFENSIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 14, 18 January 1944, Page 5

NORTHERN OFFENSIVE

IN MILD THAWING WEATHER Eec. noon. LONDON, January 17. Although the Red Army, on the major part of the front, is contending with what the Russians call "an orphan winter"—relatively mild, thawing weather-—it is able to use ski troops in its new offensive north of Novo Sokolniki and also continue to resist the full-scale German counter-attacks east of Vinnitsa, reports the British United Press.

Russian mobile and armoured forces north of Sokolniki are smashing across the densely-forested swamp area striking for the Leningrad-Polotsk railway which is one of the two supply lines the Germans retain south of Leningrad. The new drive is linked up with General Bagramyan's attacks between Nevel and Vitebsk. The whole manoeuvre is preparatory to a concerted push towards the Baltic States. The German news agency's commentator, yon Hammer, says that the strong Russian attack with from five to seven infantry divisions and tank formations north of Novograd pushed back the German front several miles. The fighting is now extremely lively from Nevel to Oranienbaum and Leningrad. Reuter.»s Moscow correspondent says that in their drive against Poland Kokossovsky's men thrusting on west of Kalinkovichi have already crossed the unfrozen Ippa River within shelling distance of the railway that loops round between Pinsk and Minsk. General Vatutin's right flank simultaneously continues its pressure on Finsk from the south in an attempt to /cut the Mosir-Pinsk railway