CLOSING VYAZMA GAP

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 January 1942, Page 5

CLOSING VYAZMA GAP

RUSSIANS’ TRIPLE DRIVE

MORE GERMAN WITHDRAWALS LONDON, January 23. The Russians are making a threepronged drive to close the Vyazma gap General Zhukov’s forces in the centre are sweeping west from Borodino and are now reported to be 40 miles from Mozhaisk. Other forces are converging on the gap from the north-east and south-east. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that the Germans admit that further withdrawals on the central front may be expedient. They appear to have already lost Orel, even if the Russians have not actually occupied it. Russian operations at Byelgorod and further south threaten to envelop Kharkov or compel the Axis forces to retire to the Dnieper. The Moscow newspaper “Izvestia” says that increasingly violent fighting is going on as the Russian advance continues, threatening to outflank the Germans retreating from Mozhaisk. Prisoners reveal that the Germans are throwing in fresh reserves, many of whom arrived from France a few days ago. . The midday Soviet communique says that last night active operations were continued by the Russian armies. In one sector of the central front, Soviet units liberated three populated places in one day’s fighting. The Moscow radio says that the Russians have been threatening Orel, Kursk, and Kharkov in the last four days, and have recaptured 44 towns and villages. The Russians are trying tq breach the defences of an important town west of Kalinin. This may be Rzhev, which is an important junction of two railways. Forty-four towns and villages have been reoccupied by Marshal Timoshenko’s forces during the last few days in fighting in the southwestern sector. Thirty of them fell before the onslaught of the Russian Cavalry Guard. The Moscow radio adds that the Germans occupying the Tula Province destroyed 366 villages, 299 schools, and 50 railway stations. The Russians have restarted the famous Tula munitions plant, and 166 local factories. Two coal-mines are being restored. KARELIAN FRONT. LONDON, January 23. Fighting has flared up again in the far north, on the Finnish front. The German radio, describing fighting on the Karelian front, made the following admission: “The best Prussian Guard regiment was so weakened and decimated by two days of forest fighting that it had to be withdrawn. The regiment endured for eight days, fighting an enemy in every respect vastly superior.” RUSSIA’S NEW GUN (Recd. 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 23. Fighting is going on in the central front in extreme cold. The Berlin radio declared that the Germans at this front for days resisted heavy sustained Russian attacks, in a temperature of 54 degrees of frost. Moscow claims that the Russians on the central front recaptured 98 places in the past twenty-four hours. A Russian artillery officer, broadcasting on the Moscow radio, said that Russian artillery, especially the deadly new weapon created by Russian workers and engineers, are striking panic and fear into the Germans. “We artillerymen know the value of this new armament. A few minutes direct fire razes everything, even at long distances.”