VICTORY IN NORTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 January 1944, Page 5

VICTORY IN NORTH

RUSSIAN SWIFT THRUSTS GERMAN KILLED TOTAL 40,000 LONDON, January 21. The Red Army is fully exploiting the break-through at Novgorod The retreating Germans are being chased into the forests and isolated units mopped up. A swift thrust to cne south-west has carried General Govorov’s forces 17 miles from Oranienbaum. They are striking towards the narrow gap between Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. South of Leningrad General Govorov has sent a column down towards Krasnogvardeisk (Gatchina). ihe Red Army is now only .10 miles from this rail junction. . x The Germans are being forced m..u the country between Lake Ilmen ana Lake Peipus. Communications m this area are in danger both from the northern and eastern, drives ot the Red Army forces moving out from Krasny Selo and Novgorod. Russian claims, totalled, give rhe number ’of German dead in tms northern offensive as more than 40,000. . . .. In the far south von Mannstein n still pressing against the southern flank of the Ukraine bulge, but without effect.

Thursday’s Moscow communique said: “The Red Army on the Leningrad front continued to develop its offensive and captured Ligovo, 10 miles south-east of Oranienbaum, as well as a number of inhabited places, Red Army troops advancing from Pulkhovo joined with those advancing from the area south of Oranienbaum. Some groups of routed German units are encircled and are being wiped out. The Red Army on the Leningrad front has captured 26b guns, 85 of which are long-range ones which were used for shelling. Leningrad. The number of German’ dead has increased to 25,000. “Troops on the Volkhov front, as a result of an outflanking movemem.. to-day carried Novgorod by storm. The Russians fought successful battles to liquidate the German troous surrounded"in the forests west e' Novgorod. The Russians north or Khristincvka repelled infantry anc tank attacks.” „ The Germans lost more than 40,(f1)v killed, and 4000 German troops were captured during the first six days of. the Russian offensive on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts. The booty captured includes 162 guns, 120 mortars. 635 machine-guns, ana 26a lorries. Soviet troops destroyed .198 guns, 110 mortars, 355 machme-guus and 350 lorries. . „ . . On all fronts on Wednesday Soviet troops destroyed or disabled 94 enemy tanks, and 17 German aircraft were shot down in aerial engagements and by anti-aircraft fire: GERMAN ADMISSIONS

LONDON. January 21

The importance of Novgorod cannot be over-estimated. It was the southern anchor of the German defence line in the area of the Volkhm. River, and it controls the highways and railways linking Leningrad with the south and west, and with the Baltic to the east. A German News Agency commentator said that the Russian Winter offensive had entered its second phase with the centre Of gravityshifted to the northern sector and the Ryezhitsa area. A Berlin radio correspondent said that even after the withdrawal from Novgorod, the German forces were still being attacked from three sides. “The German soldier remembers the fighting in the northern sector in 1943, when he fought with numbed body and frozen face. The situation is even more difficult now.” A German News Agency communique on the operations of the Finns said that hard fighting had occurred in the central sector of the Karelian Isthmus. “The Russians, after a violent artillery preparation, attacked one of our strongpoints. We threw them back and also repulsed a later attack.”

A British surgeon who has returned from Russia said that the Russians maintained a daily medical, aerial transport service to guerrillas. Even damaged dentures are flown back, repaired, and reurned, he s:ud.

GERMAN WITHDRAWAL

LONDON, January 21

Major von Hammer of the German News Agency says that because of increasing Russian- pressure the Germans have evacuated the salient east of Kolpino, 20 miles south-east of Leningrad. Describing this as a breath-taking admission the “Daily Mail’s” military correspondent suggests that the whole German line has withdrawn south-east of Leningrad, thus throwing open the entire defences southward to Chudovo. The stage appears to be set. for a gigantic encirclement of thousands ol Germans trapped In their own defensive web.

The latest messages received in Stockholm from Moscow say that street fighting is occurring in Krasnogvardeisk, 30 miles south of Leningrad. Advanced Soviet tank columns are reported to have reached Volosovo, 35 miles from the Estonian border.

A Russian communique reports that many German officers and men on the northern front are laying down arms and surrendering. The Red Army’s Leningrad offensive has settled down to three major drives, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Firstly, there is the. blow against Krasnogvardeisk, where the Russian troops from the Oranienbaum and Pulkovo sectors have linked up; secondly, the drive from Leningrad south-east against most stubborn German resistance in a bid to cut off a large pocket of enemy troops; and, thirdly,, a move southwest of Novgorod along the railway to Dnn and the shores of Lake Ilmen, a sweep which should bring the Russians north-west of the great German, fortress of Staraya-Russa, about 140 miles south-east of Leningrad. MA N -POWER SHORTAGE. RUGBY, January 21. The Russian offensives at Leningrad and Novgorod shattered very strong defences in those sectors, and the prospect begins to appear of the expulsion of the Germans from the whole salient in between. The shelling of Leningrad by heavy guns is reported to have ceased, after two years. All this time the German defences resisted attempts by the Russians to break them and raise the semi-siege of the northern capital, which caused thousands of deaths by. starvation. Thgre is no evidence that the Germans have decided to retire from their advantageous positions on the road to Leningrad, some of which are in the southwestern outskirts, nor is there any sign of weakening of German morale in Russia. It is reasonable to assume that , what at last gave the- Russians a ; chance was the thinning out of men j to which the Germans'were forced to resort by their reverses and heavy losses in the south in the latter half of last year. As the result of successive Russian offensives the line is some. 600 miles longer than ■ at last August. A converging movement in the

general direction of Luga seems .possible. Crossing the northern part of Lake Ilmen may also react on German positions around Staraya Russa, just south of the Lake. ir. the whole defences in this area werq unhinged a formidable Russian movement might develop from Lake Ilmen and from Novosokolmki towards Pskov, at the southern end of the strong River Narva-Lake Peipus position. DRIVES CONTINUED. (Rec. 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 21. The German Army in the nortn faces complete defeat as the Red Army’s three-pronged thrust tears vital gaps in the 10-mile deep enemy ring around Leningrad, says Remer’s Moscow correspondent. The Russian offensive' is developing with rising force and tempo. More and more Red Army infantry divisions are pressing forward through forests, pillboxes and mines. Minefields are under a ceaseless creeping barrage from the Soviet guns. The battle south-east of Leningrad is developing for the entire clearing of the Leningrad-Moscow railway. The Russians are now; fighting in the suburbs of Pushkin, 10 miles south of Leningrad, with the capture of which the Russians will stand well in the rear of the German line. The ■ Moscow radio says that the Russians, after routing the Germans at Novgorod, are swiftly developing their success, mopping up isolated German units. Although the Russians recently have not mentioned the large-scale offensive west of Ry echi tsa. The Germans are again asserting the Russians are attacking in strength. The Stockholm “Dagens Nyheter’s” correspondent from Berlin, quoting a German military spokesman. said that west of Ryecnitsa the big ‘ Soviet offensive becomes heavier and heavier. The Red Army is trying to penetrate to Bobruisk. The Vichy radio says that all along the line between Leningrad and Novgorod the- Soviet High Command is trying to execute a giant pincer movement to surround several German armies. They are using tanks.

artillery and infantry on. an unprecedented scale. Reconnaissance shows a comparative lull on the southern front. The Russians are bringing up reinforcements and fresh war material. The Russians' great surge southward from Leningrad virtually freed the Soviet Baltic "Fleet, says the Associated Press Moscow correspondent. These ships, which have been locked up in port for two years, are now free to operate in Kronstadt Bay and possibly beyond. GIGANTIC - OFFENSIVE LONDON, January 21. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm “Dagens Nyheter” quotes a. German military spokesman as saying the new offensive in the LeningradVolkhov area was the heaviest the Russians have ever launched in the northern sectors. The correspondent claimed that battles at present raging are so gigantic that all other events on the Russian front pale into insignificance. The spokesman admitted that the Russians had determined to roll up the whole German line between Leningrad and Lake Ilmen. REFUGEES’ SUFFERINGS (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) NEW YORK. January 2.1. • Chaos is spreading through Eastern Poland, as the result of the German retreat, according to a 'report from an underground source to" the Polish Telegraphic Agency. Ukrainians evacuated from around -Berdiche.v and Vinnitsa are being driven westward on foot, clogging the roads. Thousands are dying from hunger, cold and exhaustion. Vilna and»the surrounding districts are overflowing’ with starving civilians in a desperate condition. The Germans attempted io move the refugees westwards, but the transport system broke down. The Nazis are seizing all available stores and grain, transferring them to Germany, and are shutting down factories, removing the machinery:

HUNGARIAN DEFENCE

LONDON, January 21

The Hungarian Prime Minister (M. Dekallay) said: “We must be-

ware of floods which may come from abroad. When the external danger is al hand there is also a danger inside. A tremendous wave is approaching us. 'We must be ready and mustremove all barriers which may hinder us in defending the country "

LENIN’S BODY

MOSCOW, January 21

Two professors, who are members of the Soviet Academy, in an article .in “Izvestia,” state- that Lemin’s body is in as good a state of preservation now as 20 years ago. “After Lenin’s death the body has been view-

ed by 19.000,000 people. Many more generations will na/c the opportunity of seeing it.”