RUSSIAN CAPTURES

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 March 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN CAPTURES

GZHATSK STRONGHOLD TAKEN GERMAN COUNTER-ATTACKS LONDON, March 7. A special Soviet communique states: “As a result of two assaults, Soviet troops occupied the town of Gzhatsk. The booty is being counted.” Gzhatsk was an important German strongpoint, and the nearest to Moscow a of those remaining in enemy hands. Gzhatsk is situated 100 miles from Moscow, on the Moscow-Vyazma-Smolensk railway. . The occupation of Gzhatsk indicates that the Red Army is closing m on Vyazma from at least two directions, an earlier Moscow message having announced the capture of Osuga, 16 miles south of Rzhev,, on the railway to Vyazma. Booty captured at Osuga included 57 tanks. Other localities have been captured in the advance in the Rzhev area, but the Russians are facing very bitter resistance, including infantry and panzer counter-attacks. So determined is the resistance that the Germans even launched counter-attacks at night, which is unusual for them. The Germans are also using a large number of mines, and also sending out mobile groups of tommy-gunners on skis in attempts to ambush Soviet troops. The Russians are sending out specially-trained units to destroy these groups and isolate garrisons, while the main Russian forces continue to advance. Since the capture of Gzhatsk the Russians have pressed on to the we£t, capturing 20 more places, and developing a threat to Vyazma. Other places have been captured south of Rzhev, on the railway to Vyazma, and also below the Rzhev-Velikye Luki railway. Vyazma, 40 miles west ol: Gzhatsk, is now the one remaining main German strongpoint east of Smolensk. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians are rapidly developing thrusts that are threatening to shatter ’ another German “hedgehog” system. They are driving south-westward of Rhez towards Smolensk. Germany’s biggest base m Russia, and probably Hitler’s own headquarters. Latest dispatches report that the Germans are retreating everywhere southward and south-westward ol Rzhev. , , The Russians have closed m on the important 90-mile Vyazma-Smolensk railway, which is the most stronglyfortified, railway line the Germans hold in'Russia. South-west of Rzhev the Germans are fighting back hard, but the Russian advance continues and many more points have been occupied. The Germans are flinging in large reinforcements of tanks and infantry in this area, but the Red Army is giving the enemy no chance of consolidating any positions. OREL IN POCKET The Russians continue their en-, circling movement south of Bryansk. This move has left Orel in a pocket, dependent on the threatened westward road an'd railway link with Bryansk. It is doubtful whether a German withdrawal to escape the envelopment of Orel can long be delayed. Russian progress in the apparently interminable Orel battle is unimpressive measured in miles, but already it has rendered most precarious the road and railway linking Orel and Bryansk. Simultaneously, northwest of Kursk, the Russians are fighting westward from the highway junction of Sevsk. Alter the capture of Sevsk the Russians are within striking distance of the Bryansk-Knotop-Kiev railway. Significantly observing that the front above Kharkov, which the Germans previously described as “fluid, is even more fluid. “The Times s Stockholm correspondent says that the chief Russian success is westward of Lgov, threatening the Rylsk terminus of .the branch line from Korenyevo, which is endangered by the Russian capture of Sudja. Marshal Timoshenko continues to make steady progress below Lake Ilmen. Heavy attacks have been launched north and south of the key German base of Staraya Russa, which is the ultimate objective of the thrust begun at Demyansk.

GERMAN DONETZ GAINS

LONDON, March 7

The German counter-drives in the south have gained much ground up to the general line of the Donetz River. The Soviet has made no announcement concerning the German progress, but evidently the area newly won by the Russians south ol Kharkov is threatened. Possession of that great city, however, gives the Russians the strength they did not have when the Germans advanced in the same direction about a year ago. The Germans claim that the Donetz position has been stabilised, but Moscow messages suggest that the Russians at present are withholding their hand. The Germans are still striking hard at the Slavyansk sector. A number of places in the Donetz. changed hands many times. Berlin spokesmen assert that the Winter operations in the Donetz are virtually ended and that the lull is inevitable ‘until the Germans begin their Summer campaign.”

Above Taganrog the Germans have launched violent counter-attacks. They claim to have inflicted heavy losses on the Russians. RUSSIAN ADVANCE CONTINUED. (Recd. 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, March 7. Advancing swiftly westwards from Gjatsk, along the line of Napoleon's disastrous retreat in 1812, the Russians are now thrusting against the strategic Viazma-Smolensk-Niki-tinka triangle. The last-named place is 75 miles from Smolensk, and 35 miles from the important ViazmaSmolensk railway, whereto it is connected by a branch line. According to Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, this triangle is the focal point of the vast onslaught, wherein the Red Army is striking against the toughest and longest-held sector of Hitler’s defences, extending 700 miles from Staraya Russa to Orel. The Viazma triangle is the last bastion of the offensive defensive quadrangle, which is a strongly defended area, protecting the Yartsevo-Smolensk railway line. VIAZMA ENDANGERED

(Recd. 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 7 In the past twenty-four hours, the Russians driving from Gzhatsk greatly reduced the forty miles separating them from Viazma. They are occupying townships and villages at the rate of one hourly, in the teeth of stubborn rearguard actions and raging blizzards. Other columns swinging southwards from Rzhev captured dozens of places, and now imperil the railhead at Nikltinka. The capture of Nikitinka would gravely menace the only line of retreat for the Germans holding on to Viazma against increasing threats from the north and east. Despite difficult terrain, sometimes preventing tank operations, the rapidity with which Rzhev and Gzhatsk were recaptured suggests that Stalin’s strategy is developing satisfactorily. Golikov is simultaneously carrying on a big attack against the OrelBryansk line from the south. His troops pushed on westward, consolidating the position on a ninety miles ‘front, through Sevsk, Dmitriev, Lgov and Sudja, of which the left flank is protected by the continued advance c

northwest from Kharkov. The Russians are also deepening the wedge between Orel and Kursk, and rapidly clearing the railway from Bryansk to Konotop, which town is being approached by the advance from Sevsk. Reuter adds: Despite the Red Army’s victories, the most difficult part of the task lies ahead. The Germans have suffered setbacks, and the Russians still firmly grasp the initiative, vet it is estimated that Hitler still has about 180 German divisions in Russian besides other Axis troops. TO DESTROY GERMAN ARMIES

According to “The Times’s” Stockholm correspondent, the Russians' are within gunrange of Viazma’s outer defences, but their plan is not mainly to drive back the enemy, but to destroy him, because there is little permanent advantage in forcing the Germans back to Poland and the Baltic provinces, where guerrillas cannot operate effectively as at present, when they are disorganising the German rear, facilitating, every operation. The Germans have now less reason to hold Viazma in the vulnerable useless salient. Already Berlin commentators are hinting at the probability of abandonment. They also suggest that the evacuation of Orel is likely in order to straighten the line in the sector, where the Germans’ position has undoubtedly worsened. The Russians are developing the drive on the whole stretch from Lake Ilmen to Lake Ladoga simultaneously. They are exerting strong pressure in the Kholm-Staraya Russa sector, where the German position is most precarious, because they will be penned against Lake Ilmen, unless they withdraw betimes. A Russian breakthrough here would be very serious for the whole northern position of the Germans who are being strongly reinforced. The Russians are remarkably active over the entire stretch west of Orel and Kharkov, particularly between igumy and Romny, and also in the neighbourhood of sorely menaced Rylsk. The Russians in one sector, where operations are of more than local importance, captured fifty guns and inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans in the last two days. Moscow correspondents stress the importance of the reoccupation of Gzhatsk, which is one of the most heavily fortified hedgehogs in Russia, and one of the Germans’ principal bases lor munitions, oil and spaie parts. The Germans threw in everything possible to hold the defences, extending the horseshoe around the city. The density of the German firing points can be judged from the fact that they installed in some sectors 150 pillboxes to the square mile, all linked with deep trenches roofed with logs, forming a honeycomb. The Russian artillery bombardment tore wide gaps in the German lines, through which tanks, under cover of snowstorms, penetrated, the infantry lol—lowing up mopping up strongpoints. The assault developed a terrific punch as the reserves came in, but met an apparently impenetrable barrier ol crossfire. The peril of double envelopment from ski troops, who traversed the snowclad forests, forced the Germans to divert part of their strength (whereupon the Russians increasing the pressure on every side burst in, completing the capture after six hours’ street fighting. Ihe Germans set fire to most of the lemaining buildings before retreating. “ACCORDING TO PLAN”

• LONDON, March 7. A Moscow radio commentator said - “ The German High Command says that operations are proceedingaccording to plan. Il that is the case, the plan appears to be to evacuate Russian territory, lose thousands of men and abandon whole arsenals. The Germans in vhe lasu 24 hours have succeeded in surrendering 102 villages westward and southward of Rzhev alone. RUSSIAN AERIAL STRENGTH LONDON. March 6. A Luftwaffe spokesman. General von Quade, when broadcasting on the Berlin radio, admitted that the Russians were continually intervening with strong and almost always supeiior aerial forces. Squadrons of armoured aircraft, protected by whole wings of fighters, attacked m successive waves, forcing a way lor the advancing infantry, and also both dav and night raiding ol German aerodromes and supply routes, lhe Russian air arm was leaving out nothing to secure a decisive victory, which,' however, the Luftwaffe had prevented. The spokesman added that the Luftwaffe was the Wehrmacht’s operational reserve. It was independent of railways and roads. It alone nearly always reached its goal. Transport aeroplanes were most effective in bringing relief to die ground forces. TYPHUS HORRORS

LONDON, March 7. Doctor Ruznetsov, who has returned to Moscow, after service as a surgeon in guerrilla camps, says: “Russian war prisoners suffering from typhus are imprisoned in barracks which the Germans set on fire. Any escaping the flames are machinegunned.” He added: “An epidemic ol tvphoid is rampant in Germancontrolled districts vvhere there is no medical aid. War prisoners are dying as a result of brutalities, starvation and disease. Any escaped prisoners joining guerrillas must first be disinfected so as not to infect the others.

U.S.A. SUPPLIES TO RUSSIA

WASHINGTON, March 6

Some of the details of American aid to Russia, additional to tanks and guns, were disclosed by Mr. E. R. Stettinius, lease-lend administrator. He said th-gt up to February 1 America had shipped to Russia more than 580,000 tons of steel, 45,000 tons of aluminium, and duralumin, 21,500 tons of zinc, and 94,000 tons of other war industrial material. The United States had also shipped 50,000 tons of T.N.T. and other explosives, and 75.000 tons of chemicals. For Soviet railroads the United States has sent 75,000 tons ol rails, and 17,000 tons of other railroad equipment.