BALTIC OFFENSIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 January 1944, Page 5

BALTIC OFFENSIVE

GERMAN LOSSES ENORMOUS

NOVGOROD EVACUATED LONDON, January 20. The Russian supplementary communique stated: Red Army troops, to capture Krasny and smash through two tonterm deeply-staggered Gciman defefnce belts. Each consisted ol reinforced concrete blockhouses, armouiplated cupolas, pillboxes, cation trenches covered with baibed wire entanglements, anti-tank qbstacles, and fortified to the limit with firearms of all calibres. The battlefield is strewn with bodies of thousands of German dead, and smashed and abandoned equipment and armam The British United Press Moscow correspondent says: Russian tank divisions which smashed through 12 miles of the German defence belt on the Gulf of Finland, have broken into open country, and are now racing towards a great lateral railway linking Leningrad with the Estonian town ol Narva. The Red Army at three places is only 12 miles from this vital line which supplies so many German divisions on the Leningrad front. This break-through is the first major strategic victory in the latest offensive to free all Baltic countries. There are a number of Nazi divisions still resisting south of Peterhof, a Gulf of Finland town famous for its great Imperial Palace, which is already back in Russian hands. These German divisions have virtually been trapped between Russian wings advancing from Oranienbaum and Pulkova, which may already have met. Russian forces under 100 miles south-eastwards are still advancing in a toig double drive on both sides of Novgorod. After capturing Vitka, a northern force pushed on another 10 miles to cut the Novgo-rod-Leningrad railway at Boltonaya, only 12 miles from Novgorod. The forward unit of this force is a little under 70 miles from Russian units which advanced through the south from Oranienbaum. Between them, and stretching north-eastwards, are 5000 square miles of country wherein the bulk of the Nazi divisions on the northern front are still, concentrated. Most railways, serving the area run from the Russian-controlled area to the Novgorod-Kirishi line, which has already been cut. Another big German encirclement seems possible in this arfca. Novgorod itself is almost surrounded ’ LATER> Berlin radio announced that Novgorod has been evacuated.

LENINGRAD RING BROKEN

RUGBY, January 20. The Russians are using a characteristic double-pincers movement m the north. In the first place Novgorod was enveloped from both -sides, its railways having been cut north and south. Simultaneously, the Kussians broke out of the Leningrad ring and out of Oranienbaum, which had been an isolated foothold on the short opposite Kronstadt. These two ■movements in the Leningrad sector are joined solidly from the sea near Peterhof to the Krasny area, a

dozen miles inland. There are si ill about 70 miles between Ihe Leningrad and Novgorod offensives, but they ate obviously part of the same movement to clear the Germans from the whole of the Leningrad region. So far the Russians have expelled the Germans from the south-western but not the southern and south-eastern approaches to Leningrad. One blow came from the Pulkovo neighbourhood, 12 miles south of the heart of Leningrad in a south-easterly direction, and captured Krasny. about 17 miles from the city’s centre. The other blow from Oranienbaum struck east along the shore to Peterhof, thus linking with the main Leningrad defence, and also south to a point over 10 miles south of Peterhof and .seven west of Krasny. The swift advance avoided the. sacking of Krasny by the Germans. Full' Winter conditions presumably have set in on this front, but on the Ukraine front the ground is not in the grip of the real iron frost which generally reigns during the Winter. The Winter so far has been very mild, with heavy snow and rapid thaws, making the going difficult.

STORMING OF NOVGOROD

RUGBY, January 20

The capture of Novgorod is announced in an order of the day by Mr Stalin, addressed to General Meretskov.

“Troops on the Volkhov front, havingTaTinched an offensive in the direction of Novgorod, crossed the River Volkhov and the upper part of Lake Ilmen. They broke the strongly-for-tified and long-prepared German defence line, and to-day, as the result of a skilful by-pass manoeuvre, stormed the important industrial and political centre of Novgorod—an important centre of communications and German defence.” Fresh Soviet forces which landed at Oranienbaum from warships, have advanced along the Baltic coast, towards Uritsk, says a Moscow correspondent. They are supported by fire from a Soviet battle cruiser from Kronstadt, which joined the offensive. In the first onslaught, 1700 Germans were killed and. others clung stubbornly to the shrinking strip of coast in their occupation.

PSKOV’S CAPTURE IMMINENT. (Rec. noon). LONDON, January 20? So irresistible is the new offensive, that Moscow officials, although renownedly conservative, are forecasting the imminent capture of Pskov, despite the fact it is 120 miles away, says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. The Russian victory south of Leningrad, continues the corresppndent, is overwhelming. The entire enemy forces between Krasny and the Luga River are facing the imminent risk of encirclement. Endless columns of Red Army tanks and infantry are inexorably pressing on across the shell-pocked country, through gaps which the tremendous barrage originally blasted. Once through the gaps, the tanks are fanning out in every direction, conjuring up the prospect whether the three-year-old threat to Leningrad will finally be lifted. It is unofficially estimated in Moscow that 300,000 German troops are facing disaster as the result of the Russian advances between Leningrad and Novgorod. The Columbia Broadcasting System’s Moscow correspondent says the offensive is one of the greatest offensives yet, while the National Broadcasting Corporation’s representative says the new offensive has power and promise equal to anything during the war. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Russians surrounded a large German group near Peterhof. Latest reports state the narrow bridgehead between Oranienbaum and Leningrad has been cut off from the main German fortress, and is being rapidly mopped up. The Paris radio says that a terrific battle is raging along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland.

Latest reports from Berlin state that Russian pressure is extremely lively and has increased during the last 24 hours. The Berlin radio says that an unending stream of Russian forces is pouring into the front line south of Leningrad. The Exchange Telegraph’s Stockholm correspondent says a report from Berlin states that under pressure from

superior Russian forces, the Germans were forced to withdraw several miles from the positions north of Lake Ilmen. SUPPLIES FROM ALLIES CAIRO. January 19. Captain R. M. Robbins, former Traffic Superintendent of the Persian State Railway, in a broadcast, said 200,000 tons of material were sent by the Persian Gulf routes to Russia each month, J