MELITOPOL FALLS

Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 3

MELITOPOL FALLS

POWERFUL ENEMY BASE

CRIMEAN GATEWAY OPENED

LONDON, October 23. Marshal Stalin, in an order of the day, announced that the town and railway station of Melitopol had been completely liberated by Soviet troops. Marshal Stalin said: "Troops on the Ukrainian front, after many days' stubborn fighting, broke the enemy's fierce resistance, and, inflicting heavy losses, 'completed the occupation of the town and railway station of Melitopol, the most important stronghold in the enemy's defence in the south, the gate to the Crimea and the lower part of the Dnieper. Thus the most powerful enemy defence zone on the river Molochnaya, which was even stronger than that on,the river Dnieper in fortifications, as well as in the number of infantry, artillery, and advance troops, has been broken on a decisive sector.'

The order says that the formations and units which distinguished themselves will, in future, 'be called the "Melitopol" formations. The Red army men and commanders who particularly distinguished themselves in breaking through the enemy's defence will be decorated as Heroes of the Soviet Union, the highest Russian distinction.

A Russian communique states: " The Germans • placed particularly high importance on this defence zone. This is shown by the fact that the pay of German officers in this sector was three times greater than that in other sectors of the eastern front and that German soldiers fighting in this sector were decorated with the Iron Cross."

The victor of Melitopol is General Tolbukhin, who took an important part in the Soviet offensive in the Stalingrad area. He was commander of the Soviet southern front troops last August. He was promoted to the rank of army general last month. A Moscow message states that the Germans were prepared to suffer any losses in their attempt to hold the town, which was the pivot of their line. In addition to the forces concentrated along- the Molochnaya Rifver, the Germans had transferred from the Crimea and other sectors several infantry divisions and also a great number of tanks, self-propelled guns, and field artillery. The enemy, in fighting for Melitopol, suffered exceptionally • Iveavy losses, more, than 4,000 men 1 being killed on Friday in the northern part of the city. Moscow's guns, 224 of them in 20 salvoes, thundered again on Saturday, proclaiming the capture of Melitopol, the strategical centre of the southern front which the Germans lately described as the key to the Crimea. The military writer of the 'Sunday Times ' says that if, with the fall ot Melitopol, the Russian pursuit roUs swiftly across the steppes, there may be a German rout. The German losses are very heavy. Their divisions have been fighting literally for weeks, and it is amazing that they are still in being. The danger for the Germans is that it they start cracking as the result of exhaustion they will go altogether. TKe catastrophe threatening the German armies in the Southern Ukraine and Crimea' dvershadows even the Stalingrad disaster, says the newspaper ' Observer.' Their situation is i.-js.relied only with that of the British and French armies in May, 1940, after the break-through at Sedan. It is not ieusioic for all the three menaced German armies—in the Crimen, in the Nogaisk steppes south of Za^oro/he,

and in the Dnieper belid';' proper—to escape through the Nikolaev bottleneck, where the three remaining escape railways converge. It might still he just possible this way to save the troops in the Crimea alone it the other two armies are sacrificed'. The consequences if these three German armies are destroyed are almost immeasurable.