ON FROM VILNA

Evening Star, Issue 25225, 12 July 1944, Page 5

ON FROM VILNA

RUSSIANS DRIVING TO KAUNAS GERMAN ROUT IN PRIPET MARSHES (Rec. 11 a.m.) • LONDON, July 11. Leaving a strong force at Vilna to finish mopping up the barricaded German garrison, the Red army is swiftly thrusting towards Kaunas, and is now within 40 miles of that city, 6ays Reuter's Moscow correspondent. The Russians have thus crossed the pre-1939 Lithuanian border at another point some 70 miles south of the original breach. The Neumanas River, ou which

Kaunas stands, is relatively narrow at this point and should not prove a serious obstacle for the Russians;As General Bagramyan's artillery is moving uj> within range of Dvinsk the enemy's land gap between the Red army and the Baltic Sea has shrunk to barely over 100 miles. The Russians further south are pushing a drive against Grodno and Bialystok, twin bastions on the south-eastern approaches to East Prussia on a front of over 70 miles, with the road and rail centre of Wolkowy as the preliminary objective. The Soviet drive in the. Pripet Marshes towards Pinsk has turned into a pursuit. The Russians reached and passed Malodelchitsi, only 15 miles east of Pinsk, representing an advance of 20 miles in the drive beyond Luninets. The Germans are making the utmost use of mines, which are scattered thickly among the marshes.