NORTH FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21305, 18 January 1944, Page 3

NORTH FRONT

RUSSIAN DANGEROUS GAP

VINNITSA STRUGGLE WHOLE LINE ABLAZE (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (11 a.m.) i RUGBY, Jan. 17. The Russians, with the capture of Antonovka, are now within 16 miles north-east of the important rail junction of Rovno, the twin objective, With Kowell, of the Red Army’s westward drive into Poland, reports Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The new Russian break-through north of Neval has torn a dangerous gap in the defences around the railway centre oi Sokolniki, which is left with a single rail link running west to Latvia. The great battle raging east of Vinnitsa, where the Russians are making for the Odessa-Warsaw trunk line, has reached new heights of intensity in the past 24 hours. The Germans, ward drive into hours. The Germans, throwing in big tank reserves, repeatedly attacked the Russians hues on a wider front than since the Vinnitsa battle started.

The latest front-line reports confirm that the Germans gained no ground. The Germans more than ever are feeling their inferiority mnum bers and the quality of the artillery. They have plenty of mortars but in suffiicent heavy guns. , , , r _ In a desperate attempt to bolder up gj»?, rm a a “S S ifSSA" °°§ Russian pilots encountered as many as 30 of these planes in a sing morning and shoe down a number of th Th; Paris ladio says the whole Soviet tank forces moving up strong art iWery and air a m"— U said themed i the enemy’s defences over a front of eight Nas’va?thereby cutting Sokolniki line.

Kostopol Occupied

The Russians west and north-west of Kalinkovichi advanced and occu nied several localities. P The Russians west and south-west of Sarny occupied the large town o Kostopol, besides other inhabited localities, including Wladzimierzec, 25 miles north-west of Sarny. A Swedish report from Berlin states that the vanguard of a strong Russian force, thrusting from the Vinnitsa area, crossed the Bug River ’ s|® ' man reserves strongly counter attacked one Russian unit and encircled it. Now it apparently faces defeat unless the Russians can bring up reinforcements. A Russian supplementary communique states that the Red Army, continuing to advance west and northwest of Kalinkovichi, after fierce battles crossed the river and occupied several inhabited localities on the west bank and captured prisoners and booty. , i The Russians at Kastopol repulsed with heavy casualties the Germans who counter-attacked in an attempt to restore their position. The Germans fighting east of Vinnitsa and north of Uman threw in more than 100 tanks and several regiments of infantry in an attack on a narrow sector. A Russian artillery barrage foiled the attack. The enemy brought up reinforcements and renewed the attack. In fierce fighting the Russians forced the Germans to retreat after 2000 troops had been wiped out. The Red Army during the day destroyed 136 tanks. The Berlin radio says: “The faces of our- soldiers on the eastern front in 1944 are very different from their faces in 1941. The German soldiers have lost the expression of youthful light-heartedness which they had when things were going well. Worries about the fate of their parents, wives and sweethearts in Germany can be read in their faces.” Hundreds of Guerrillas armed with tommy-guns control the Pripet marshes. They have built small-scale hedgehog defences to prevent the German attempts to penetrate the marshes. The Guerrillas are in constant touch v/ith the Red Army commanders by wireless and through staff officers who drop into the area by parachute. , , The Times’ Moscow correspondent reveals that through Kalinkovichi hundreds of ‘ those mixed transports have passed in which, under wretched circumstances, conscripted Russian labour and condemned Jewish war prisoners are sent to Poland The Russians recapturing Kalinkovichi found grim, traces of this traffic.