RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 November 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

DNIEPER BEND GAINS GERMAN PROGRESS AT JITOMIR LONDON, November 23. The double Russian offensive in the Dnieper Bend is growing in power and speed, and both thrusts have gained ground in the last 24 hours. South-west of ''Dnepropetrovsk the Russians have driven closer to Nikopol and to Apostolovo, the bottleneck rail junction through which all the enemy’s escape traffic must pass. The Red Army was previously reported to be 30 miles north-west of Nikopol. The Russians have macle their greatest progress in the drive from below Kremenchug. In the last 24 hours they have greatly extended the area of their advance, and have captured more strongpoints. . One wing of this advance .is aimed directly at Krivoi Rog, and the other wing is threatening the rail junction of Snamenka, 50 miles south-west of Kremenchug, through which most of the supplies for the Germans in Krivoi Rog must pass. Yesterday the Russians captured a place 16 miles from Snamenka, and they now threaten to take the enemy in the rear all along the Dnieper, right up to Cherkasy. In the Jitomir area, south-west of Kiev, the Germans have extended the area of their attacks. They are now flinging in masses of men and tanks on a front 30 miles long. The position here remains dangerous. The Russians continue their outflanking move against Gomel, in White Russia, and have captured a place only six miles from the garrison’s only escape railway. GOMEL ENCIRCLEMENT. (Rec. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23. The encirclement of the Germans in the Gomel trap is almost completed, say Moscow dispatches. < Cavalry from General Rokossovsky’s While Russian Army crossed the OdessaLeningrad railway between Jlobin and Mosir, cutting the Germans' last escape railway to Jlobin. Gomel, which the Germans boasted was impregnable, is now m the rear of the Russian spearheads and is under attack from the north and south. The cavalry sweep across the railway was made at one of the most vital points, just east ol Ihe Pripct Marshes. The main Russian force is only five miles from the railway. Observers say tiisil von Mannstein is held in the battle- for the Kiev Bulge, where for ten clays he _has tried to force a break-through, It is pointed out that the ground given up by the Russians is only. 10, id ‘-O miles in 10 days, which from the strategic viewpoint is insignificant. The Germans have switched their attacks westward and are now clriving from the sector between Chernyakhov and Korostychev. They are still throwing in men and tanks, but the Russians’ lines are holding. The Germans, while claiming some around has been gained in this sector, admit they are meeting “stiffening resistance.” Allied correspondents report that the Winter is slowly creeping south across the Ukrainian Plains, hardening the roads, which have been spit, black mud. Harder roads mean improved mobility for tanks and transport on both sides. GERMAN CASUALTIES (Recd. 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov, 23. The Germans have been almost cleared out of the right bank ol the Dnieper below Rychista, says the Red Star. All organised resistance ceased twenty-four hours ago. The only resistance left is at the crossings themselves. The paper adds that the Germans attempting to withdraw from the Gomel trap suffered huge losses, including hundreds drowned in the Dnieper. The British United Press says the Russians after a three-day assault inflicted against the Germans the worst rout since the crossing of the Dnieper. The Russians broke through the German positions south of the Kremenchug bridgehead and joined up with the forces at the Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead, after a twelve-mile advance. The Germans suffered very heavy casualties. The Russians in the past two days destroyed over 130 tanks, killed four thousand Germans and captured a large number of others. The Russians are only fifteen miles of Snamenka, which is the rail pivot of the ‘German front between Cherkassy and Krivoi Rog. Reuter says the Russians are on the move from the Beresina to the Lower Dnieper, except north and east of Jitomir. Progress is now faster in the centre than in the south. Big operations are going on and indentations made along the whole front. The Germans in the Dnieper Bend are putting up a strenuous resistance and fighting is becoming more mobile as frost hardens the ground to a granite-like surface. The Germans have been badly mauled. Incomplete data gives a- total of thirty-six thousand Germans dead since November 14.

Stockholm reports say a German spokesman admits the Russians control the Gomel-Jlobin railway, depriving the Germans in Gomel of rail contact with the outside world. The spokesman, however, insists that Gomel is not completely cut off. as a narrow gap is kept open between the railway and the Soj River.

DR. BENES IN MOSCOW

LONDON, November 22. The President of Czechoslovakia (Dr. Benes) has arrived from London to sign an alliance pact with Russia against Germany and hoi? satellites, to hold for 20 years, says a report from Moscow.