SOVIET SURPRISE

Evening Star, Issue 24990, 8 October 1943, Page 3

SOVIET SURPRISE

Dramatic Capture Of Neva! WHOLE FRONT AGAIN ABLAZE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright (Eec. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, October 7. The Eed army forces have captured Neval. This was announced in an order of the day by Stalin. Earlier the Berlin radio announced that Soviet forces after fierce fighting had penetrated the German lines north of Neval, which is a rail junction south-west of Velikie Luki. Messages from Moscow correspondents to-day say the Bussians have taken the Germans completely by surprise in a sector which throughout the summer _ bad remained quiet—namely, the area south-west of Velikie Luki. Berlin radio stated that the new Eussian offensive was launched early yesterday morning, and added: " The Bussians used strong tank, infantry, and air formations, their objective being Neval. Extremely fierce and fluctuating fighting developed in great depth owing to the character of . the terrain. The Bussians, despite heavy losses, threw in formations repeatedly, and a strong tank group, accompanied by infantry, broke into the German lines north of Neval. The struggle with these forces continued, throughout the night.'-' In addition to the surprise capture of Neval the Bussians have achieved new infiltrations. To-night's Soviet com- - munique states: " After a lull necessary in order to bring up troops from the rear, our troops relaunched their offensive along the whole front from the Vitebsk sector to the Taman Peninsula. The troops on the North Caucasian front are at present engaged in successfully liquidating enemy bridgeheads on the Taman Peninsula. We captured the town and port of Taman and a large number of localities, enemy troops who had not the time to evacuate the peninsula being annihilated. " Our troops on the Middle Dnieper sector successfully forced the Dnieper and captured bridgeheads in three places " north of Kiev, south of Pereyaslavl, and south-east of , Kremenchug. Our troops are step by step enlarging their . bridgeheads."