RED ARMY PUSH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21151, 20 July 1943, Page 3

RED ARMY PUSH

EASTERN UKRAINE TWO-PRONG DRIVE OBJECTIVEsIn DONBAS GERMANS ~ADMIT ODDS (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (11 a.m.) LONDON, July 19. A powerful two-pronged Russian offensive, which has been raging since early on Saturday morning in the Mills River and Donetz River region, aims at the reconquest of the industrial centres in the eastern Ukraine and the annihilation of the Germans east of the Dnieper River, says the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Stockholm. Powerful armoured forces and masses of planes are supporting the drive, which is meeting General von Manslein’s armies in southern Russia. The northern arm of the new olfensive stretches along the west bank of the Donetz River through Isyum to Chuguyev. The Russians, further south, are striking across the Mius River, west of Rostov, against the German key strongholds of Taganrog and Staiino in the Donelz basin.

The offensive was launched at an ideal moment. The German crack storm troop divisions are already engaged in the Kursk-Orel sector and picked Luftwaffe squadrons are also engaged on other fronts. The correspondent says that no moment is. more promising for the achievement of the objective of trio Russian winter offensive, which can be frustrated only by an exceptionally early spring. That objective was tin; reoccupation of the Dnieper Line and the destruction of the German army in the Ukraine. The battles of the Donetz and Mius Rivers are especially welcome news for another reason. Their inception coincides with a German propaganda attempt to present the Kursk-Orel battles as having so exhausted Russian manpower and material reserves that they are incapable of undertaking a major operation this year. The answer is being given to the German army on (he plains of the Ukraine in the only language that the Germans understand.

The Berlin radio says that the Russian attack on the southern front has now lost its diversionary character and has become an offensive in the full sense of the word. Extremely violent fighting was in progress all day on the Kuban sector to the southeastern part of the Sukhinichi area. Despite heavy losses, the Russians continue to throw in new reserves of men and tanks.

The Berlin radio admitted that the Russians on the Mius River front are attacking with tremendous numerical superiority. The German infantry divisions in one sector were under the fire of 220 Russian guns. The radio announcer claimed that .the Russians suffered heavy casualties in attacks against the Mius and Donetz fronts. However, he admitted that the Germans could not prevent "isolated penetrations.”